When You're Strange
by Spyke1985
Summary: Shakarian, starts in ME1. Total rewrite of the original story. Taren Shepard is a tough cookie with a big secret. How long can she keep it from the turian who sees right through her? Barely follows canon story or characters. Seriously. NSFW, Mature rating for a reason. Violence, Lemons, Humor, Xeno. Deal with it. :D Kaidan lovers beware, I do not like his ass. You've been warned.
1. Chapter 1

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 1

"I want Saren as badly as you do Shepard, let me join you."

It'd started out so simply. He was just another ex-military, now C-Sec Officer, yet another turian in the glut of turians that were always on the Citadel. He'd shown some skill with a gun, sure; but probably no more than any other turian in C-Sec armor that could be seen strutting around the Presidium -or any of the wards- like they owned the place. Which they pretty much did. Pick any turian out of that orderly throng, and they probably could've made the shots he'd just made.

But there was something special about this one. When she looked him in the eyes, she saw a roguish determination there that she hadn't seen in any of the other deadened eyes of the turians patrolling the Citadel. His eagerness and obvious lack of patience for the red tape that the rest of his race seemed to love was almost endearing, in a strange way.

She rocked back on her hip and regarded him, giving him a thorough once-over, sizing him up. From everything she knew of his race, he was a very attractive example of a turian, with simple, but elegant blue colony markings. He was tall, obviously no older than his mid-twenties, and he had a long fringe, broad shoulders, a narrow waist, sturdy hips, and strong legs with prominent spurs. His light C-Sec armor didn't leave much to the imagination, and as she looked at him, she noted with a light smirk that his chest puffed up in a _very_ turian display of pride.

She made up her mind then. _'He'll do nicely.'_

"Alright Vakarian, welcome to the team."

His mandibles flared and fluttered a bit in an excited turian grin. "You won't regret this, Shepard."

She raised an eyebrow at his apparent cockiness, and suppressed a snort. She turned to the female human behind her, Chief Ashley Williams, who was currently wearing a decidedly uneasy look on her face, and shifting her weight from one foot to the other in obvious discomfort. "Got somethin' to say, Chief?" Shepard scrutinized her Gunnery Chief as she spoke, wondering why the woman seemed to have suddenly lost her air of quiet confidence.

Ash's eyes rose up to meet Shepard's for only a moment before lowering them again to some point directly behind her. "If it's all the same ma'am, I'd like to go back to the Normandy. Give you a chance to test out our new team member." Her gaze flicked to the new turian recruit, at the sight of which she shuddered very slightly, then back to the obviously fascinating spot behind Shepard as she finished speaking.

Taren Shepard wasn't stupid. If the Chief thought she was going to slip her prejudice against aliens under her nose without being noticed, she had another thing coming. But it could wait for now. There were far more pressing matters to attend to than one closed-minded crewman. She affected a nonchalant shrug. "Fine with me, Chief. I'll see you on-board." She promised, giving The Chief a pointed look. Ash met her gaze long enough to nod slightly and salute, promptly disappearing through the doors of the clinic.

Shepard gave a cursory glance to Vakarian and the human male, Kaidan Alenko, and gestured towards the door. "Shall we, then?" She hit the door trigger and exited the clinic without waiting for an answer, with the two males trailing closely behind her.

As they walked, Vakarian mentioned a male krogan named Wrex was currently being questioned by C-Sec in regards to his threats to kill a local crime lord, named Fist. Shepard blinked. "Well that's beyond perfect, let's go get him. If I can get him to join us, even better. A krogan on the team would be phenomenal." She said, her voice elevating in excitement. Kaidan raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment.

They managed to arrive in C-Sec fairly quickly, despite the infuriatingly slow elevators of the Citadel. The scene playing out before them was almost too much for Shepard to hold back her grin as she watched it unfold. A human C-Sec officer was standing toe-to-toe with an overly red krogan, telling him to stay away from Fist. But she could tell he didn't have the quads to really stand up to this krogan if things got ugly. His stance was too weak, and he was barely able to meet the krogan's eyes with his own. She supposed she understood it; krogans aren't exactly known for being the peaceful type.

The krogan, who she had to assume was Wrex, go right in the human's face with a superior sneer on his lips as he spoke. "You should warn Fist, I _will_ kill him." He walked past the officer and ignored him as he half-heartedly dismissed the huge krogan. Wrex turned to give a once-over to Shepard, and as she met his gaze evenly, without a hint of fear, he stopped, a smirk on his face. "Enjoy the show, human?" He inquired, though he didn't appear to care that much, barely sparing Shepard a fraction of his attention as he looked around him, keeping his surroundings in view.

Now Shepard couldn't help but snort a bit. "Yes, I did. So, you're lookin' for Fist? So are we. Maybe we could help each other. We help you knock out his hired help, we get the info we want out of him, then you get the pleasure of killing him. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement. What do you say?" She crossed her arms and settled back on her right hip, her usual negotiating stance.

Wrex eyed her suspiciously. "Who are you? And what info do you need from Fist?" He asked, skepticism heavy on his voice.

Shepard lets a smug grin play across her face. "I'm Commander Taren Shepard, Alliance Navy, and Fist has information on the location of a certain person that has incriminating evidence that can get Saren Arterius' Spectre status revoked, and have him declared a traitor to the Council and the galaxy in general. So, is that a good enough reason for you, or are we done here?" She leaned forward just enough to look Wrex right in the eyes, issuing a clear challenge.

Wrex reeled back a bit, clearly surprised by Shepard's reason. He maintained eye contact though, and smirked in Shepard's face as he responded. "Good enough for me." He extended his hand for her to shake in a very human gesture. As she shook it firmly, he spoke again. "If you're done talking, let's go. I'm tired of waiting around. He's in Chora's Den."

Shepard nodded and moved to a transit hub terminal to hail a cab for them.

A/N: Short chapter, I know. I'm kinda just putting feelers out here. This is my first attempt at a Shakarian ship fic, so I want to do it justice, while keeping it interesting. I ship Shakarian hardcore, so I'm pretty nervous about it. Let me know what you guys think while I work on the next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

**When You're Strange**

**A/N: By the by, while writing this, I will very rarely actually be quoting the original words from the game, unless my memory just happens to recall them correctly. ALL of this is AU and from my fickle memory, so if I get things wrong, deal with it. It's AU, and I'm not fixing it. Kthxbai. :D**

Chapter 2

When they arrived at Chora's Den, the place was crawling with Fist's toadies. Most were easily dispatched with a few well-placed shots, others were slightly less easily destroyed by the three biotics in the group. The only one left standing was a particularly hardy krogan, which Wrex scrambled the brains of with his shotgun, after he managed to wedge the barrel of it right between the eyes of the unfortunate krogan, just under the crest. The resulting orange and gray splatter had Shepard admiring the artistic beauty of it for just a moment, before she re-focused on the door to the back room.

They gathered around the door, and she palmed the trigger, only to be confronted by two workers with no armor, armed with cheap pistols. She snorted at the sight, and before they even had a chance to speak, they both had a brand new holes between their eyes. She heard a gasp behind her, and turned to see Kaidan's mouth open in shock. She scoffed at his expression. "What?" She snapped at him.

His eyes drifted to her slowly, as if he were truly in shock. "Y-you... You just shot two men that didn't even have armor on. Hell, they probably would've just left if you'd bothered to ask them!" He stared at her dumbly.

His attitude annoyed her. "They were armed, and aiming those armaments at me. Do you really think I'm going to give them a chance to shoot me when I can just solve the problem outright and move on?" Kaidan shook his head at her, his eyes clearly conveying his disapproval at her lack of mercy. Wrex chuckled. Shepard smirked at him and continued, "And, speaking of moving on..." She promptly stepped over the bodies of the men she'd just shot, and took stock of the small room they were in.

She saw some lockers on the wall, and opened the unlocked one, grabbing a pistol and a mod from it. She carefully inspected the new pistol, and set it on top of the locker, unholstering her own pistol and removing the mods from it, then installed the mods on the new gun and holstered it, before converting her old pistol into omni-gel. "Let's get this over with. Fist's gotta be in this next room; according to the building schematics, this is the last room in the building." She noted, after pulling up the relevant info on her omni-tool.

She palmed the door trigger, and she heard a strained human male voice screaming obscenities in between something about having to do everything himself. She was about to walk past the metal divider wall in the room's entryway, when she saw the turrets suddenly popping up out of the floor. "Shit, TURRETS!" She warned to her makeshift team, as she slammed her back against the divider. They all quickly found cover behind the seemingly solid metal walls, and started throwing everything they could at the machinery that was currently assaulting them. Finally, the left turret gave out under the abuse, sputtered, and exploded; leaving only the right turret, and whatever badly aimed pot-shots Fist was tossing their way.

"Oh, fuck this shit." Uttered Shepard, reaching for her belt and setting a five second timer on the grenade which she quickly lobbed at the turret, being careful to avoid Fist himself in the blast radius. They still needed to get whatever info he had on this damn quarian, and she was looking forward to watching Wrex finish his target off. The grenade did its job, creating an impressive little explosion next to the turret, and causing the turret to shatter, the metal warping and splitting to turn the once lethal machine into a useless hunk of metal.

They came out of cover then, to see Fist trying to shoot at all of them at once, and missing more than hitting any of them. Shepard sighed, bringing up her new pistol and shooting the gun out of Fist's hand. The shocked look that flashed across his face, followed quickly by the inevitable stench of fear, brought a smirk to Shepard's lips. She walked up to the crime lord and punched him square in the nose, and he fell on his ass in a pitiful, simpering heap.

He looked around at the four individuals crowding around him, then focused on Shepard as he finally managed to find a semblance of a spine to speak up with. "Who are you people? What do you want?"

Shepard sneered and reached out to grab hold of the coward's armor collar, snatching him up so her face was inches from his as she spoke. "We need information about the quarian that came to you. Tell us where she is, and I'll tell my krogan friend here to back off from killing you. Don't tell us, and I'll be happy to show you the meaning of pain."

Wrex growled behind her. "Shepard..."

She snarled and ripped her eyes away from Fist long enough to give Wrex a look that would melt steel, before turning back to Fist and shaking him violently. "So where is she?"

He trembled and Shepard could smell fresh urine as he answered her. "She went to the Zakera wards, to the alley behind the supply warehouse there. I told her she was going to meet the Shadow Broker, 'cause that's the only person she said she'd give the info she had to."

Wrex snorted. "Nobody meets the Shadow Broker. Even I was hired by an agent."

Fist nodded emphatically. "Yes, but she didn't know that. So, I told her I'd set it all up, and told her where to go. When she gets there it'll be Saren's men waiting for her. If you go quickly, you might be able to catch her before they kill her." He clasped his hands in front of his face in supplication, obviously begging for Shepard's mercy.

She scoffed and gave him a look of pure disgust, letting go of the collar she'd been holding him with, and turned to Wrex, nodding at him and pointing her thumb over her shoulder back at Fist. Wrex nodded, and promptly shot Fist in the face with his shotgun, sneering at the mess of shattered bone, blood, and brain matter. He turned back to see Shepard grinning broadly at him, and he returned the gesture, letting his bloodlust show in his eyes.

Shepard turned and started towards the exit, talking as she went. "Ok boys, let's go rescue this damned quarian before she manages to lose the intel we need." She turned for just a moment to look at Wrex. "Hey Wrex, you know we could use someone like you on our team. If you want lots of chances for bloodshed and explosions, we'd love to have ya. We're going after Saren, after all." An evil smirk painted her lips as she gazed at him.

Wrex regarded her for a moment, then nodded. "If you keep operating like you have so far, I'll enjoy creating chaos with you, so sure, I'll stick around for while."

She laughed. "I knew you'd come around. Alright, let's head out!" She said, and they headed quickly out of Chora's Den, blasting away the few goons that had filled the small club, and racing to the location Fist had given them.

As they arrived, Shepard saw a turian with rather unattractive colony markings stroking the arm of a quarian in a purple suit. She looked beyond them to see two salarians in full armor, and nodded between Vakarian and the two agents at the back. He nodded, and took out a rather impressive sniper rifle, leaning it on the crate he was crouched behind, and scoped them in. She took aim at the turian, and spoke quietly. "Now."

One of the salarians was down, and the turian had a hole in his shoulder that was freely bleeding blue, but the fight wasn't over. The quarian tossed a grenade at the remaining salarian, and the turian took a shotgun blast to the chest from the small quarian. It was all over within seconds. She glanced over at the quarian, checking for injuries, and saw none. They came out from behind cover, and headed towards the quarian, who was standing there, watching them. She holstered her shotgun and raised her hands as she spoke. "Thanks for the help, but I could have handled those bosh'tets. I had a feeling Fist wasn't really going to help me."

Shepard chuckled and shook her head. "No, Fist was setting you up bigtime. Those were Saren's men. For future reference, the Shadow Broker doesn't meet anyone, no matter how juicy the information is." She watched as the quarian's eyes widened behind her mask, the revelation clearly surprising the young woman.

Shepard smirked and continued, "Speaking of information, I'm Commander Taren Shepard, and I'm here rescuing your ass on behalf of the Council and the Alliance, because of the information you have on Saren Arterius. Please come with us, we'll take you to the human embassy and get your intel into the right hands."

The quarian blinked and nodded, extending her hand to Shepard. "It's good to meet you, Commander, I'm Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. Just... Call me Tali. I'm ready when you are." Shepard smiled and shook the proffered hand, then turned and waved forward for everyone to follow her.

One quick transit terminal and a cramped cab ride later, they arrived at the Presidium, and made their way to the Embassy, where Anderson and Udina were waiting for them. Introductions were made all around, and Tali activated her omni-tool, bringing up the file she wanted to play, and Saren's voice filled the room.

"Eden Prime was a major victory. We're one step closer to finding the conduit."

Udina immediately spoke up. "The council will want to hear this. This is exactly the evidence we need to bring Saren down, once and for all." He was about to walk to his console to contact the Council, when Tali interrupted him.

"Wait, there's more to the file." She replayed the sound clip, and a feminine voice that could've been human or asari chimed in after Saren's.

"And one step closer to the return of the reapers."

Udina raised an eyebrow, but like a good little corrupt politician, had no other reaction. "I don't recognize the other voice. And what are these 'reapers' everyone keeps talking about? I've never seen one before."

Tali spoke up then. "According to the information I retrieved from the geth core, it is a race of sentient machines that destroyed the protheans fifty-thousand years ago, then vanished. Apparently Saren is trying to bring them back."

A dark cloud of apprehension descended upon the room, as they all looked at each other with a growing sense of dread at this revelation. Udina was the first to break the thick silence, his voice slicing through the air like a hot knife through butter. "The council needs to hear about this. They can't sit by any longer and ignore it. I'll arrange an emergency meeting."

Shepard stormed up the steps towards the Council members, Wrex and Vakarian in tow, as she heard Tali's omni-tool booming out Saren's voice to the entire chamber, blaring Saren's betrayal to everyone that had gathered to watch the meeting. As the female voice that followed ended, the asari councilor's face went from careful concentration to shock, and she spoke up. "That's Matriarch Benezia's voice. She is a highly respected individual, with many followers. What is she doing with Saren?"

Udina answered. "I don't know, councilor, but if she's allied herself with Saren, she is every bit the traitor that he is. This evidence is irrefutable, you cannot ignore us any longer. Saren is a traitor and a danger to everyone. He's allied himself with the geth, and attacked an innocent colony of civilians, this cannot go on!"

The Council members looked at each other and nodded. The turian councilor spoke this time, "Saren Arterius is now stripped of his Spectre title, as well as the resources and privileges that come with it."

Udina snarled. "That's not enough! Send your fleet in and deal with him!"

The turian councilor clicked his mandibles and scoffed. "We cannot send a fleet after one man. He is currently in the terminus systems, if we sent a fleet in, it would spark a war. That is the last thing we need right now."

The asari councilor looked at Shepard, then slid a sidelong glance at the other two councilors. "There is another possible solution. While we cannot send in an entire fleet, a single ship, with a Spectre in command of it could be sent to deal with him, and it would have the advantage of not starting a war." She looked at the other two councilors, giving them a pointed look, and then nodded, all three bringing their hands up to the consoles in front of them. "Commander Shepard, step forward please."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, and she did so, as Anderson patted her shoulder in his fatherly way.

All three councilors gave flowery little speeches about honor and responsibility and being chosen, not trained as they typed in their authorization codes, inducting her into the elite ranks of the Spectres. As they finished speaking, Shepard gave a half bow of respect, and spoke. "Thank you, councilors. I'm honored."

As the councilors filtered out of the room, Udina turned to Shepard, his hand curled into a thoughtful fist, his thumb resting on his chin. "As a Spectre, you'll need a ship, a crew, and certain Alliance resources must be made available to you." He nodded at her, then looked to Anderson. "Anderson, come with me. I'll need your help setting things up for her." Anderson nodded and followed Udina out of the hall.

Shepard turned to Wrex and Vakarian, letting out a sigh of relief. "Well. No pressure, but you're going to be working under a Spectre now. You sure you want to come along for the ride?" Wrex pounded his fists together excitedly. "I'm with you, Shepard." Vakarian nodded. "Definitely. I'm even more excited now than I was. Working with a Spectre? I can hardly wait!" His eyes sparkled in excitement as he gave her a broad, teeth-baring turian grin.

Shepard grinned back at him. "Alright then, let's head to C-Sec so I can check the Spectre Requisitions for some new gear. Should be something shiny there for you two as well. Maybe an even bigger sniper rifle, Vakarian?" She winked at him, and his grin turned into a nervous flutter of his mandibles.

"Uhh, it's just Garrus, Shepard. If you start calling me Vakarian, people might think you're talking about my father." He flicked his left mandible out in an awkward smirk.

Shepard raised an eyebrow at him and affected a sly smirk as she took a step closer to him, leaving only a foot of space between his armor and hers. "Alright then, 'just Garrus'. I'm Taren. If I catch you calling me Commander or Shepard, I may have to kick your tight little ass. Please don't make me, it would be a shame to ruin that pretty fringe." Her smirk broadened into a wicked grin as his mandibles fluttered into overdrive and his neck flushed blue. She brushed past him, down the ramp, and walked to the rapid transit terminal, hailing a cab to take them to C-Sec.

She heard Wrex chuckle and speak softly for a krogan, probably trying to keep her from hearing him. "I think she likes you, turian."

She turned to see Garrus' reaction, and saw his neck turn even darker blue as he looked wide-eyed at Wrex in shock. Wrex just laughed and ribbed him with his elbow, before heading down the ramp to join Shepard. She quickly turned back to the terminal, pleased in the knowledge that Garrus hadn't seen her watching his reaction. She spared Wrex a wink as he came up to her side, and they both shared a devious chuckle.


	3. Chapter 3

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 3

The Spectre Requisitions officer was a relatively attractive, if bare-faced turian, and when his sub-harmonics registered surprise and mistrust at the human asking for Spectre stock, Shepard growled at him. "I'm Commander Taren Shepard, the Council just made me a Spectre. So unless you want your bare face shoved through that console, and your short fringe tied into a girly bow, I suggest you check my credentials, and open up the stock I need. Or shall I call Executor Pallin down here and have him do it for me?"

The officer's mandibles slackened and his eyes went wide as she spoke, and his sub-harmonics screamed indignation at her insults and threats. It created a great deal of interference on Shepard's translator, and she grimaced as she reached up to her earlobe, pinching it fiercely to deactivate it. She spoke in a turian dialect reserved for commanding officers that were speaking to their subordinates. **"Look, quit your bitching and just get it done! I don't have time to stand around and listen to your petty indignation!"**

The turian looked at her like she'd suddenly grown a second head, but did as he was told. After her ID checked out, he made the effort to speak in Common as he nodded to her. "Alright, it's done. Just access the kiosk to get your supplies." He went quiet and busied himself with his console as soon as she looked away from him to the kiosk, reactivating her translator absently as she opened the interface. She scrolled through the long list, seeing a ton of upgrades that she desperately needed, and more than a few that her team could use as well. She bought almost everything. Coming from a rich family, even though they were all dead, occasionally had its advantages.

The officer looked up as his terminal displayed everything she bought, and he sighed as he stood, walking to the back room.

Garrus tapped a talon on her shoulder as she finished her purchasing, and whispered to her so the other turian wouldn't hear him. "Taren, that might've been a little extreme. He was just doing his job, after all. Also, how did you know which dialect to use?" His own sub-harmonics trilled with curiosity as he finished speaking.

She turned to him and sighed, keeping her voice similarly low as she answered. "If you want something done right, sometimes you have to be a little... Crass. Tact doesn't always win out, and you usually end up sounding like a limp-dicked salarian if you rely on it all the time. And I don't know you well enough to answer your question."

The officer came back out then, pulling an anti-gravity unit with a large crate hovering over it. As he started to take things off the shelves and pack them in the crate, Shepard occasionally interrupted him, making grabby hands towards certain items he'd picked up, and either equipping them, or handing them off to one of the two aliens behind her.

When she finally grabbed the new sniper rifle she'd bought for her turian team mate, she turned with it held lovingly in her hands, and looked at him. "Now Garrus, this is a very special gun. I want you to treat this gun like your first born child, like your bondmate, your lover, your parents, and anything else that might be especially precious to you, combined. This is the best sniper rifle you will ever own. Well, until there's an new version, at least." She smirked at her last statement, and slowly handed the work of art of a rifle to him.

Garrus eyed the gun like a thirsty man eyes a tall glass of water. When he grasped it in his hands, he immediately went to the equipment modification bench, and began taking it apart, installing the mods she'd just bought for it. He then programmed the DNA ID pad with his blood and talon-print, bonding the gun to him forever. He reassembled the rifle, and as he pressed his talon to the pad, the gun flickered to life, glowing a light blue, which matched his visor perfectly. Shepard was pretty sure, by the look on his face when he saw his new rifle come to life, that he came in his pants.

She snickered and turned back to watch the officer grab Wrex's new shotgun, and she grabbed it from his hands, then tossed it back to Wrex with a wink. Wrex grinned as he eyed his new beauty, and went to install his own new mods, promptly shoving Garrus out of the way as he started methodically taking the gun apart.

Shepard waited for him to finish, then moved to the bench herself, taking out several different guns and keying them to her DNA and fingerprint, installing mods, and laying a kiss on every gun before holstering it. When she turned back to her team mates, they were both giving her an odd look. Wrex was the one to finally ask. "Shepard, why did you just kiss all your guns?"

Shepard laughed. "It's just a tradition of mine, Wrex. I treat my guns like lovers, gotta give 'em affection to keep 'em happy." She grinned as Wrex seemed to accept the explanation, and she laughed again as Garrus blushed.

Her eyes moved to the turian behind the counter, still grabbing items off the shelves and tossing them into the crate. She changed again to the turian dialect she'd used with him only minutes ago as she raised her voice to speak to him. **"Hey are you almost done back there? I'd like to get out of this hole in the wall sometime today."**

The officer growled, and his sub-harmonics squealed that he was almost at the end of his patience for this impetuous woman. He forced himself to speak Common again. "There's..." He looked back at the list on his terminal, "Six more items, Spectre Shepard. It'll only be a few more moments." He strained out the answer as politely as he could.

She nodded her approval, then leaned her hip against the mod bench to watch him as she waited. She swiveled her head to look between Garrus and the turian that was hurrying around behind the counter a few times, then rounded on Garrus as she spoke quietly, but just loudly enough that the officer might pick it up. "You know, I'm glad I picked you out of all the turians on this damn station to watch my six. You're much better eye candy than that bareface ever will be." She smirked as Garrus' neck flushed dark blue, and she heard the officer's snarling growl as he clicked his mandibles to his face sharply, his sub-harmonics roaring anger at her as he threw the last item into the crate with far more force than necessary.

He tugged the anti-gravity unit out from behind the counter roughly, sending it and the crate careening towards her. She caught the handle and stopped it as the items in the crate jostled around angrily. The officer glared at her, and she sneered a smile at him, tossing a turian salute at him before she turned, shiny new equipment in tow, and headed for the elevator. She was interrupted by her omni-tool bleeping an urgent message notice, and she opened it to find a message from Anderson to meet him and Udina at the Normandy's docking bay. They piled in the elevator and she hit the button for the docks.

The speakers blared a news report about Eden Prime, and Wrex scratched his ass through his armor as they waited for the slow elevator to deliver them to their destination. It finally opened, and they trudged up the ramp towards the Normandy. She turned to Wrex as they neared the two humans standing at the docking ramp. "Wrex, take this shit aboard, would you? Hand it off to Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, she'll know what to do with it all. Garrus, go with him. Ash can give you both a tour after she's done."

Garrus and Wrex nodded as the krogan took over the anti-gravity unit controls. "Shepard." He said, as he turned towards the airlock. Shepard smirked as she watched them both go, watching the gait of the two males. Garrus had a shy swagger to his walk, which she grinned at. Wrex had more of an over-confidant stomp. She had to bite her lip with sharp teeth hard enough to make it bleed to keep from laughing at the sight. She turned to Anderson and Udina, and walked close enough to acknowledge them.

Udina spoke first. "Shepard, you're taking command of the Normandy. Anderson is stepping down."

Shepard's face showed shock at this news, and it bled into her voice. "WHAT? Anderson, did you approve this?"

He nodded as he spoke up. "Yes. I'll be stuck at a desk for a while, but you need the Normandy's stealth systems if you're going into the terminus systems. She's a good ship, she'll serve you well. I would've given her to you anyway, once you became a Spectre, if Nihlus hadn't died. She was made for you. We knew you were our best hope at getting a human into the Spectres. Treat her well, Taren." He gave her a genuine, warm smile, and opened his arms to her. She grinned and gave her father figure a big hug, before facing Udina again.

He looked like he'd just tasted something nasty as he watched the two soldiers embrace, but he shook it off before he spoke. "As the first human Spectre, you'll be reporting to the Council, but the Alliance may occasionally have need of you, and we expect you to honor that. You didn't get here by yourself, after all."

She nodded, though she made a mental note to punch Udina at some point in the near future, if he did anything remotely worthy of it.

He continued, blissfully oblivious to her thoughts. "Good luck, Shepard. Make humanity proud."

She proffered her hand and a forced smile. As he shook the hand, she couldn't help the words that ran through her head, _'I'll make more than humanity proud, you ignorant, simpering fuck.'_

She gave one last human salute to Anderson, which he returned with a proud grin, and she walked into the airlock of her new ship. As she cleared decon and entered the cockpit, she looked over at Joker, the Normandy's pilot. "Hey Joker, take us out. Engage stealth systems and head to the terminus systems. We'll wait there for further instructions."

His hands began to fly artfully over the consoles in front of him before he even responded. "Aye-aye Taren. So, sucks about Anderson, huh?" Shepard nodded in agreement. "But hey, at least we still have you, with that stick up your ass. And hey, you've finally got someone else on board with the same stick up their ass."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Who are you talking about, Joker?"

He looked back at her. "That turian, Garrus or whatever. Though I'm pretty sure his stick is bigger than yours."

She belted out a laugh and shook her head. "You're somethin else joker."

He grinned. "But that's why you love me. Gotta love the wise-ass cripple."

She snorted and shook her head again. "Yeah, just make sure that ass of yours doesn't eat the brains you need for piloting this heap like a god. Then you'd be a useless wise-ass cripple."

He turned his chair around, his eyes wide in mock shock. "Wow, Taren; did you just say I piloted like a god? I didn't know you cared so much!" He clutched his hand to his heart and pretended to pine after her as she laughed and walked out of the cockpit.


	4. Chapter 4

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 4

The CIC hadn't changed since Anderson was in charge, so she was about to hit the elevator to talk to her actual team mates, when her XO Presley waylaid her. He mostly complained about Anderson being gone, but he finally got to his real point: his aversion to the aliens being brought on board what he saw as a human ship.

While she understood that it _had_ been a human ship, it was _her_ ship now, and she wasn't going to hear any insubordination on it. "Presley, I like you, so I'm gonna be nice about this. The aliens are here, on this Spectre ship, because I need them for their skills. We'll probably pick up more aliens along the way, so I would appreciate it if you could keep your prejudices in check, because if I hear about this issue again, you and I are going to have to have a private chat in my office about exactly why you shouldn't be on this ship with that attitude. Now, is this going to be a problem after this?"

He quickly snapped a salute to her. "No Ma'am."

Her face fell as he said 'Ma'am', and she rolled her eyes. "Presley, call me Taren or Shepard. You should know better by now." She gave him an encouraging smile.

"Yes Ma- er I mean yes, Shepard." He looked like he'd just swallowed a toad.

She bit her lip for the second time in the past half hour, trying to keep the smile off her face. "Good man. And spread the word, please. This is no longer a military vessel, and I don't want to hear my rank or 'Ma'am' come from anyone's mouth on this ship ever again." She smiled and nodded towards the console in front of him, indicating that he should get right on it.

"Sure thing, Shepard." He turned to the console and started typing a ship-wide message.

She turned and walked down the stairs to the mess hall. As she entered the room, everyone stood from the tables. She rolled her eyes. "At ease, before you sprain something. You'll be getting a message from Presley in a moment explaining why you should never do that again." She shook her head and huffed, storming towards the fridge, nodding to Alenko as she stuck her head into the fridge, and sniffed a couple of times.

Several crew members looked at each other with confused expressions, but sat down anyway. Shepard grabbed an amino-neutral nutrient shake that looked mildly interesting, and turned around, kicking the fridge door closed in time for everyone's omni-tools to blare out an urgent message alert. As they all read the message, the confused expressions turned to ones of understanding and comprehension, and they all settled to chow down on whatever was in front of them amicably.

Shepard smirked to herself and headed to the elevator, slurping the shake down as she went. She hit the button for the engineering deck, deciding to go have a chat with Ashley. She figured she may as well give her the same speech she gave Presley, and make sure there weren't any more prejudice issues on board her ship. _'Then maybe I'll make a point to have a chat with Garrus and Wrex, just to emphasize to Ash that I have their backs." _She smirked at the thought, and the elevator doors opened to reveal the large cargo bay in front of her.

She stopped by the Normandy's own requisitions officer, glad that she wouldn't have to deal with the barefaced turian from C-Sec, since she'd bought the license from the kiosk while she was there. She handed the human male in front of her the license, along with several others she'd made sure to pick up from the Citadel. She had a short chat with him, then headed towards Ash.

Ash was obviously busy, in the middle of a video call with another human female that looked an awful lot like her. _'Ahh, a family call. Well, she can chat with them again later, this is important.'_ She tapped her on the shoulder, and Ash jumped, then clutched her shoulder as she turned. "Damn Shepard, you've got sharp nails. You scared the crap outta me. Give me just a second to hang up with my sister."

Shepard nodded, and Ash turned back around, interrupting her sister in the middle of her story to tell her she'd call her back later. They said their goodbyes, and Ash faced Shepard once more. "What's up, skipper?" She prodded her own shoulder again, looking at the tiny drop of blood on her finger as she pulled it away in surprise.

Shepard raised and eyebrow, but decided to ignore it. "Not much, wanted to talk to you about something in private. Come with me to my office." She turned and headed towards the elevator, and Ash hurried to catch up.

Once the doors of Shepard's new office closed behind them, Shepard did an about face and looked Ash in the eyes. "Ash, I'm going to make something very clear to you. What is said in this room does not leave this room. Period. I don't care if your own god asks you personally what was said."

Ash nodded. "Of course, skipper. I understand."

Shepard gave one curt nod. "Good. Now then, onto the matter at hand. Your prejudice against aliens needs to end if you're to stay on this ship. I've already had a similar discussion with Presley, though I didn't tell him what I'm about to tell you." She sighed and sat behind her desk, flinging a hand towards the chair at the other side, indicating the Ash was free to sit there.

As she did, she looked at Shepard quizzically. "What do you mean, skipper? What didn't you tell Presley, and why are you telling me?"

Shepard grimaced. "I'm telling you because I consider you a friend, and because you're in this crew as a team mate, someone I go into battle with. I need you to know this for the sake of our friendship, and so you'll hopefully trust me a little more. Though it may hurt more than it'll help in that regard, depending on your opinions after this conversation."

Ash gave Shepard an even stranger look of complete confusion, and Shepard huffed as she explained. "For all that I am touted as the first human Spectre, it's not entirely true. I am one quarter turian."

Ash's eyes bugged in shock as her mouth fell open. "WHAT? How? I thought dextro and levo didn't mix?" She paused for a moment, then spoke again. "Skipper, are you pulling my leg? That's it, isn't it? All this is a joke, I get it now. Good one." She gave a half-hearted laugh, though the forced mirth didn't reach her face.

Shepard shook her head, her face a stone mask of seriousness. "No Ash, I'm not joking. I am one quarter turian. And you're right, dextro and levo don't mix, unless they're forced together thanks to too-curious humans trying to make a super soldier for a war that humans were losing. The First Contact war is when my mother was born. Or rather, bred." She sighed as she relayed the story.

"The scientist that created her managed to mix the DNA of a captured turian soldier and herself successfully, then impregnated her own eggs with the cells, and tried over and over again to carry the child to term. By the time she finally gave birth, the war was over. No need for a super-soldier. But she kept the child, because it was a scientific marvel, a freak of nature. She wanted to study it, see what it developed into. Would it look mostly human or turian after it hit puberty? Which kinds of foods would it be able to eat, if not both? Would it be sickly, or strong?" She rubbed the bridge of her nose and paused for a moment, letting the information she was relaying to Ash sink in.

She sat back in her chair and continued. "My mother spent the first twenty years of her life in a lab, being prodded, cut open and sewn back together, experimented on, educated. My grandmother was a wicked, sadistic, genius of a woman, but even she had a soft spot for her most prized possession, though she had a strange way of showing it. She educated my mother in anything my mother ever showed interest in. Including military training, languages, science, history, math, literature, you name it."

"By the time she'd gotten through a body-wrecking puberty, she could pass as human well enough to have occasional 'outings', as my grandmother would call them. They'd venture outside the lab, visit remote colonies, socialize in limited, controlled settings. One day, my mother saw a human male that caught her eye. He was a guard at one of the colonies they'd visit. They started talking, eventually fell in love. She became pregnant by him, which in itself was a medical miracle, because my grandmother had told her she was sterile. The man, my father, had armor and weapons at his disposal. My mother talked him into helping her escape my grandmother's clutches. He gladly helped her, though he ended up killing my grandmother to attain his love's freedom."

Shepard leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk, and her chin on her folded hands. "My mother inherited the wealth that my grandmother had in her family, and her and father settled on Mindior to raise me. When I was twelve, batarian slavers raided the colony we lived in, and killed or carried off everyone but me. I managed to escape, only thanks to my biotics, and a few hours later the Alliance showed up, in the form of David Anderson and a platoon of soldiers. He took me in and was a father to me, and I enlisted at eighteen. Then Akuze happened. Fucking hell, Akuze. Lost my whole goddamn unit to a bunch of fucking giant worms with teeth. And now I'm here. And now you know more about me than anyone, except Anderson himself, and a few key medical personnel."

Ash had been silently listening to the story the whole time, her expressions going from one extreme to the other. Shepard looked at her. "So Ash, now that you know everything there is to know about Taren Shepard, are you going to keep that nasty little alien phobia you have, or are you going to get over it and move on, for the sake of this very important mission, and for the sake of our friendship?"

Ash looked at Shepard, her expression showing calculated sincerity. "Skipper, that's one hell of a story. I had no idea. You don't look turian, that's for sure. A little sharp around the edges, maybe, but I would've never known if you hadn't told me."

Shepard lifted her black bangs out of her face, clearly showing the tiny, delicate plates edging her hairline, and baring her slightly sharper than human teeth. She flexed her throat to deactivate the implant that blocked her second voicebox and spoke, letting her dual-toned voice reverberate in the turian commoner's tongue throughout the room. "You wouldn't know it unless I showed it, Ash. It's not exactly something that's acceptable in 'polite society'" She said, air quoting the last two words.

Ash's face was priceless. Shock and disbelief at what her own eyes and ears were telling her warred with her common sense. "Holy shit, skipper. You go through a lot to keep this hidden, don't you?"

Shepard nodded, her sub-harmonics trilling sadness, even though Ash couldn't hear it.

Ash gained some control over her face, and looked a bit more somber and sympathetic. "Well skipper, all of this flies in the face of every bit of common sense I have. So, I'm gonna say alright. For the sake of our friendship, and of the mission, I will stop acting so xenophobic. Just don't expect me to go making out with Wrex anytime soon."

Shepard laughed loudly at the mental image that conjured up in her head. She switched back to Common as she spoke again. "Ash, I would pay to see that, but don't worry, I understand more than you think. I just don't want any xenophobes on this ship. That's all there is to it. I've gotten it enough in my public life, I don't need it in my own home. As long as we can agree on that, we'll be fine."

Ask stood and extended her hand across the desk. "Deal skipper." Shepard took her hand and shook it. Ash commented, "I guess that explains why your skin is so rough and thick, and why your nails are sharp enough to pierce skin."

Shepard blushed mauve. "Erm, actually, the only time my nails get that sharp is when I'm going into heat. So uh, yeah. Sorry I pricked ya, didn't mean to, but you kinda jumped into my fingertip." She fidgeted uneasily in her seat.

Ash's eyes went wide for the twentieth time in the past five minutes. "Shepard... You're in heat? Are you... Um... Gonna be able to lead this mission in that state of mind?" She looked at Shepard uncertainly.

It was Shepard's turn to look surprised. "What? Of course. I'm not full turian. I don't lose my mind or anything, it's a purely bodily response, not the insane mental craving full-blooded turian females get. Though now that I think about it, I have been hitting on Garrus pretty hard, and he'll have a hard time not jumping me once I actually go into heat. That... Might get awkward to explain to the rest of the crew. And I was rather hard on that bare-faced bastard of a Requisitions Officer at C-Sec. Hmm." Shepard looked at her sharp nails thoughtfully.

"Probably should've thought about my heat before I accepted Garrus into the crew. Too late now. I guess I'll figure it out on the fly." She said, scratching the back of her head. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought about it all until now. No wonder she'd been so rude to that turian at C-Sec. She hadn't seen him as worthy, and was trying subconsciously to dissuade him from trying to mate with her. _'Well no fucking wonder.'_

Ash shrugged. "I don't know how to advise you there, skipper. That's gonna be a tough one. But don't worry, I'll be around if you need to talk or anything. And I'm good to stick around, I won't be a problem with the xenophobic thing. I've got your back." She smiled reassuringly.

Shepard returned the smile. "Thanks Ash. I'll see you later, alright? Thanks for understanding."

Ash nodded. "No problem, skipper." She walked out of Shepard's office, and let her back hit the bulkhead next to the door as it closed, heaving a sigh of relief. She stood there for a few moments longer, her mind running through the conversation she'd just had with Shepard, shaking her head at the insanity of the whole thing. Pushing herself off of the wall, she headed down to the elevator, and back to her station to finish putting away all the new equipment Shepard had bought.

Shepard sat in her office, contemplating. She wasn't sure how to handle the situation with Garrus. It would only be a matter of a week or so before he was chasing her around the ship like a love-sick puppy in a hormone-induced haze. She supposed she could just use the tradition of 'blowing off steam' to help them both through it, but that tended to be a bad idea when she'd used that route in the past.

It had usually ended up with the male getting too excited and trying to mark her, and she wasn't having any of that shit. At least, not until she could find a mate to actually stay with. Garrus was cute, and she did prefer him to quite a few of her previous bed partners, but she'd just met him, and couldn't really form an educated opinion just yet. As she thought about it, she realized now would be the best time to go and get to know him, before her heat scent kicked in fully and totally swayed his opinion of her.

She stood and checked herself in the mirror, making sure her hair covered her miniscule plating, then headed out of her office, down to the elevator. As she rode it down, she thought about how to start the conversation. She figured she'd just let him do most of the talking, if she could get him to do it with some minimal prodding. She nodded to herself just before the doors slid open, steeling herself for a possibly awkward conversation.

She waved at Ash as she walked towards where Garrus was standing, facing away from her and working on a console. _'Well, he certainly settled in quickly.'_ She hoisted her ass onto a ledge on the side of the Mako, and turned her head towards Garrus' back. "Hey, Garrus."

He went still for a moment, then spun around to face her. "Hey, Taren. Need something?" He seemed oddly tense.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "No, just wanted to talk, if that's... Acceptable."

He seemed to relax a tiny bit. "Uhh, sure. What did you want to talk about?" Even his sub-harmonics weren't indicating anything.

She looked at him properly, trying to see why he was still so tense. His mandibles were clamped to his face so tightly he was probably going to sprain them, and his jaw looked like it was wired shut. His eyes were steely, calculating. She was used to seeing that in turians that were strangers to her, but to see it in a team member's eyes was disturbing. She mentally shook herself to stop the chill of unease that was trying to creep its way up her spine. She tried to affect an air of ease as she answered his question. "Tell me about yourself."

The only indication that he'd heard her question was a slight upward twitch of his left browplate. "There's not much to tell." He said, his tense expression tightening even further.

There was definitely something wrong here. He was keeping a tight clamp on his sub-harmonics, every muscle in his body was stiff, and the general aura she could read from him was nothing but pure tension. He was fit to explode any second if something didn't calm him down. "Humor me." She said, then suddenly realized the problem.

She hadn't reactivated the implant that blocked her second voicebox. She'd been trilling sub-harmonics and speaking in a dual-toned voice for the entire conversation. Her eyes widened at the realization, but she tried to reign in the rest of her face, keeping it as neutral as possible as she flexed her throat to activate the implant.

Garrus interrupted her panic. "Taren, why do you look like you just swallowed something rather unpleasant?"

_'Shit.'_ She looked at him. "I'm not quite sure what you mean, Garrus." Some of her own tension drained out of her as she heard the very human, single tone voice roll off of her tongue, with no hint of sub-harmonics.

His browplates flew up, and his mandibles fell slack to the side of his jaw in surprise as he heard her voice again. He eyed Shepard suspiciously. "Taren, could we go talk somewhere in private?"

_'Fuck.'_ She narrowed her eyes at Garrus. "If you think it's necessary."

He nodded. "I believe it is."


	5. Chapter 5

**When You're Strange**

**A/N: I'm really struggling with this chapter. It doesn't feel completely right to me. But it's the best I can come up with for now. This chapter is pretty much from Garrus' POV. Yep. Stuff. Read already. :D**

Chapter 5

Taren Shepard was obviously not happy. She huffed several times on the way to her office, with Garrus hot on her heels, a question dangling insistently at the end of his tongue. She seemed to know she was screwed, that the jig was up. He'd heard her second voice box, and her sub-harmonics trilling all over the place, then heard as it all went back to a normal human voice all of a sudden, and she stank of fear and deception as she tried to deny giving him an odd look.

As they stepped into her office, she gestured to the chair across from hers by her desk, and he took the seat willingly. He watched as she clasped her hands in front of her on the desk, and looked at him with an uncomfortable glare. She huffed again. "Well, you wanted to speak to me in private. So speak."

He met her gaze steadily with his own, and wondered if she would recognize the gesture when he flared his mandibles upwards for just a moment, a clear challenge to any turian. Her eyebrows shot upwards and her eyes fixed on his mouth, as she let out the quietest growl he'd ever heard. Her eyes flicked back up to his, and the sound stopped. _'Challenge accepted.'_ He jerked his chin towards her. "You were raised by a turian." His tone was almost accusatory, and his sub-harmonics trilled that she'd been caught.

She rolled her eyes and scoffed. "That so? What else do you _think_ you know about me?"

He let his mandibles flick out in a sly smirk. "You were either born with an extra voicebox, which I find highly unlikely, or you have implants, and you're trained with them enough to know how to use the sub-harmonics properly. You speak at least one dialect of turian, fluently. And you can read turian expressions, and even imitate them to a point. You can hear sub-harmonics, because I saw you reacting to that Requisitions Officer at C-Sec when he hadn't said a word. I'd very much like to know how all of this can be true without heavy implants, and without spending a considerable amount of time around turians. Your service records indicate no such thing."

His eyes were drawn to her hands as they trembled with the strain she was putting on them. His eyes widened when he saw tiny trickles of mauve-colored blood coming from under the pointed nails of her interlaced fingers as they dug into the backs of her hands. She must have noticed his reaction, as she suddenly relaxed her grip, and drew her hands into her lap and out of sight. She spoke through clenched teeth. "Your observational skills are astoundingly annoying, _detective_."

His eyes flicked back up to hers as he shrugged. "It was a part of my job for a long time. What do you have to say to my observations?"

Her eyes were boring daggers into his as she spoke again. "I say that you might not like the answers. Are you sure you really want to ask the questions?"

He smirked. "I'm sure."

She growled at him. She pinched her earlobe, turning her translator off. He saw her flex her throat again, like she had in the cargo bay when her voice had gone from beautiful and turian, to boring and human. When she spoke again, it was in the same turian dialect she'd used on the turian at C-Sec. And it sounded like silk. **"Very well, Garrus Vakarian. Remember that you chose this, and you forced the issue. What I am about to tell you does not leave this room, is that clear?"**

He nodded, and spoke to her in the corresponding dialect of a subordinate. _"Yes, quite clear. Please, continue."_

She cocked her head to the side, eyes wide, sub-harmonics trilling confusion. She quickly righted herself, blanking her face and forcing her sub-harmonics into a hum of questioning agitation. **"Why are you using that dialect? Are you **_**trying**_** to get beaten up?"**

He quickly switched to Common. "What?! Why would I get beaten up for using the proper dialect?"

She clapped her hands to her ears, groaning, her sub-harmonics screaming agony. **"Don't **_**ever**_** speak Common with my translator off again! It **_**destroys**_** your beautiful voice."**

He blinked, unsure of what to do or say, and what language to say it in. He opted for the commoner's dialect of turian. **"Beautiful voice? You think my voice is beautiful?"** He listened as her sub-harmonics trilled relief, then embarrassment, as a mauve-colored blush crept up her neck, fading faintly onto her cheeks.

"**Shit. I said that out loud, didn't I?"** He nodded. **"Fuck. Ah, fuck it. Yes, you have a beautiful voice." **His own sub-harmonics purred with pride.** "As for getting beaten up, every time I used that dialect when I was a kid, my mother would beat me, and tell me that dialect wasn't fit to be uttered by my tongue. She always made me speak in this dialect or commoner's, unless we had company over, then it was regular old Common, or Proper turian, depending on the race."**

He smirked. **"Your mother obviously didn't want you to be a very good turian if she wouldn't let you use a subordinate's dialect. Every turian has to learn that dialect for when they're in the military to speak properly to a commanding officer, or even for later in life, when speaking to a superior in a civilian job, or at C-Sec" **

She laughed lightly, and shook her head. **"No, my mother wasn't a very good turian herself. Then again, that's probably because she wasn't turian. Well, not entirely at least."**

His sub-harmonics trilled confusion and curiosity. **"Not... Entirely?"**

She sighed as she launched into the same story she'd told Ash only an hour before. He listened, and watched as she seemed to be bored with her own story, rushing through things in some parts, as if she were rattling off the information from a well-rehearsed script. Ten minutes later, he could tell the tale was reaching its end, as she began to retell more recent events, like her sole survivor situation on Akuze.

She sighed. **"And now here we are, a full-blooded turian, and a quarter-blooded freak, sitting in the same room. I'd hoped to get to know you a bit better before I told you all of this, but I suppose it's better that you know right off the bat. At least I won't have to lie to you about it."**

He snorted. **"I suppose you're right. Though I have to say, if you hadn't made the slip-up with the voicebox inhibitor implant, I wouldn't have confronted you so quickly about it, if ever. You don't look like a turian. You act like one, and you know a lot of things only a turian would know, but you look human."**

She sighed, lifting up her bangs and baring her teeth, and letting loose a fringe-curling growl. He narrowed his eyes, noting the small plates around her alien hair, and her decidedly sharper than the average human's white teeth. If he hadn't seen his fair share of humans in his time at C-Sec, he wouldn't have noticed the subtle difference in the dental department. She chuckled suddenly, and stood, walking around the desk to him, and turning so her right side was facing him. **"And I'll show you another difference that I didn't show Ash earlier." **

She pulled up her pants leg, and he could see a small nub of a spur on the outside of her upper calf. She kicked off her boot, and revealed a very turian-like foot, with four toes, talons and articulated ankle. She gestured to her foot and chuckled. **"That's the second most turian thing about me. You may or may not get to see the other part. We'll see."** She winked at him and retrieved her boot, slipping it on and walking back around the desk to her chair.

She grumbled as she sat down, her sub-harmonics groaning out anxiety. **"And now to a part of the conversation that I'm really kind of dreading having with you. Well, not kind of, I am dreading it."** She paused, her eyes shifting quickly from one spot to another as she fidgeted in her seat. **"I'm going into heat soon. How do you want to handle that? I ask because I know how turian males get around females in heat, I've experienced it just from random turians at bars and clubs when I was in heat before, and I know you jerks like to bite and mark. I've had to fight off more than my fair share of would-be marking incidents. I don't want a repeat of that, but I know you will need to blow off steam once you start sniffing out my heat scent. So again, how do you want to handle it?"**

He was more than a little shocked at her question. **"Uhm... How soon are you going into heat? A month? Two months?"**

She blanched, then flushed mauve again. **"Um, no. A week or less."**

His eyes flew wide open as his sub-harmonics squealed alarm and his heart jumpstarted to try and run a race without him. **"A **_**week**_**, Taren?"**

She winced as his alarm hit her ears, and she trilled the most sincere apology she could back at him, along with a hint of indignation. **"Well it's not like I could've warned you any sooner! I'm sorry I wasn't hunting down a rogue Spectre two months ago! I mean, it's not like I can just tell my body, 'Oh hi there, body, I know you want to go into heat now, but you're gonna have to wait until this fucking mission is over, because it makes Garrus Vakarian's heart race through the roof!' I'm sorry, but I just can't do that. You see this?" **

She flared her fingers out in front of his face. **"Look at the nails. See how they're sharpening almost into talons?"**

He nodded.

"**They only do that in the month before I go into heat, and they become solid talons in the week just before. They're almost there. So you tell me how close I am!" **She shoved them even closer to his face to emphasize her point.

He growled at the proximity of her talons to his face, and she let her hands fall to her sides. **"I get it Taren. But how do you expect me to handle the situation? I get one hint of your heat scent and it's all over, you know that. So what do you want me to do about it?"**

He heard her growl, watched her throat vibrate with the force of it, as her sub-harmonics ground out her agitation. **"I need you to not mark me. I'm sick of fighting off dicks who can't control their territorial bullshit urges. If you can keep those teeth of yours off my skin in any sort of marking manner, then we can get through this without a problem. I don't mind letting us both blow off steam, but I refuse to be marked by anyone I haven't already decided to be with for life. It's not right, and you know it."**

He blinked, trying to rationalize what she was saying with what he was thinking. **"I... Think I can handle that. I can try, at least. If instinct wins over, you have my permission to kick my ass, seeing as that's your one condition. I will try not to fight back."**

She scoffed. **"It won't be a problem. Or at least, it shouldn't. I'll give you a substitute to bite on. It won't be my flesh, but it will be flesh-like, and you'll be able to bite as hard as you can stand to. It might help some, at least. And I have no problem with you nuzzling me while you bite the substitute to enhance the experience. I know how much scent plays a role in that one. It'll even bleed my blood, if you want me to set that up. Anything to keep you from marking me during this... Process."**

"**Alright, pull out all the stops then, Taren. May as well. Should we test it now while you're not in heat? Can you get it all set up in a couple hours?" **He asked, his sub-harmonics humming out genuine concern.

She seemed a bit surprised by the suggestion.** "If you think it's a good idea. I just need to get Chakwas to draw a small bag of my blood to set it up. I can be ready in twenty minutes."**


	6. Chapter 6

**When You're Strange**

**A/N: Holy shit guys! I can't believe this story has gotten THIS popular this fast. Thank you all SO much for favoriting/alerting, and thank you SO much to my reviewers, you guys are fucking awesome. This sticky, hot chapter is just for you. Much love! **

**Oh, also, if Shepard is talking to a human, she's speaking regular old Common (What I call English in the ME universe). If she's talking to Garrus, and they're alone, assume they're both speaking turian. That way, there's no need for bold text during the love scenes. It's annoyingly distracting. Any other time I'll bold it for differentiation. Mkay? Got it? Good! :D**

Chapter 5

She burst into the medbay and placed a hand on Chakwas' shoulder. "Doc, I need you to draw some blood for that thing we discussed when I came onboard." She coughed, and looked around a little nervously.

Chakwas looked at Shepard's state of unease, and smiled. "Taren, that's fine, but you forgot your implant. You haven't talked to anyone but me with it off, have you?"

Shepard gave an incredibly sheepish look to Chakwas, and flexed her throat, activating the implant. "Uhh, sorry. I was talking to Garrus. I kinda ended up having to tell him about my um... Special past."

Surprised understanding dawned on the Doctor's face. "Ohhh. I see. So he's the reason you need the blood for the little substitute."

Shepard's neck flushed. "Um, yes. We're going to test it out before I actually go into heat and make sure it works to our... Um... Satisfaction." She grimaced at the use of the word.

Chakwas just smiled. "Alright, Taren. Let's get this done then, shall we? Come, have a seat." She gestured to one of the beds and began to prepare a tray with a small bag and tubing, as well as a needle and some medi-gel. She quickly and cleanly pierced Shepard's thick skin with the needle, and her mauve blood began to trickle down the tube and into the bag.

As the bag finally filled enough for its intended purpose, Chakwas pinched the tube off and detached the bag, then attached a tube, letting go of the tube long enough to fill the tube, before pinching it off again, taking the tube off, and slipping the needle out of Shepard's arm. As she applied a dab of medi-gel, Shepard piped up. "What's the extra tube for, Doc?"

Chakwas smiled reassuringly. "I just want to see how you're doing, run a few tests. Nothing to worry about, I'm just checking up on you."

Shepard smiled back and nodded as Chakwas handed her the bag of fresh blood. "Thanks Doc. I've gotta go set up. Seeya later, and let me know how those tests turn out."

Chakwas grinned as she watched Shepard start to head out of the medbay. "Will do Taren. Have fun."

Shepard clutched the small, flat bag of blood in her hand, and slumped against a wall in a dark corner outside the medbay. _'I can't believe I'm having to do this crap _again_. Why'd it have to be a teammate this time? I just know this is gonna get fucking awkward, I just know it. SPIRITS why?' _She let her head fall forward into her hand as she shook it.

She heard armored feet fall softly on the metal grating of the deck, slowly growing nearer and louder. She looked up, and Garrus was standing in front of her. She growled at him softly, warning him not to come any closer. He took a step back as he sighed.

"Look, Taren... If you don't want to do this yet, just tell me. It's gonna be really hard to avoid in a week though. I really think we should make sure this substitute of yours will wor-"

She cut him off with her firm lips on his mouth plates. Her left hand trailed around his neck to a soft patch of skin under the first plate, stroking softly at first, forcing her long tongue into his mouth and grabbing his own tongue, curling hers around his and tugging on it hungrily. She flexed her throat and let her sub-harmonics loose with a purr of pleasure.

At first he tried to pull back from the sudden onslaught of her attack, but she knew too much of his anatomy to allow for that. Her fingers had quickly found the soft skin between his neck plates, and soon he was putty in her hands. As she forced her tongue into his mouth, he was unsure what to do. When her tongue snaked around his, slicker than his but with that reminiscent roughness, he couldn't help the moan that escaped his throat. It was all so alien to him, and yet somehow... Familiar. It confused him horribly, but he knew without a doubt that it turned him on.

He managed to gain some of his sense back for long enough to pull back. "Maybe we should... Go somewhere that's not so public." He said, between deep breaths.

She grinned up at him and chuckled. "Thought you'd never ask." She grabbed his armored hand and pulled him towards her quarters. They entered quickly, and she turned to the panel on the side of the door, engaging a key code lock. She grabbed the substitute item, a flat tube of synthetic simulated flesh, and stuffed the bag of her blood into the center pouch.

She about faced to him and let loose a purr and the most wicked grin he'd ever seen. She reached her hand out to him, pushing him backwards towards her bed. Just before his legs hit the edge of it, she stopped, and closed the distance between their bodies. She tossed the synthetic flesh on her bed, and focused on him.

She looked down at his armor and a growl mixed with the purr, as she decided to show him exactly how familiar she was with turian armor. Her hands flitted back and forth, opening snaps and releasing seals too quickly for him to track. The pieces of his armor clattered to the floor around him, falling from his form all at once to reveal his body, clad only in the tight undersuit he wore under his armor. He shivered at the rush of cool air that enveloped him at the sudden removal of the metal barrier.

She contemplated just shredding the tight suit off of his body, but held herself back enough to use the more conventional zipper route, slowly easing the metal tab downwards. She saw, felt, and heard his body shake with a growl of frustration at the slow pace. He wanted his body free, and she knew it. Halfway down, she let go of the zipper, and backed away, turning as she swayed her hips seductively, shrugging her jacket off and laying it on the back of a chair neatly. She looked over her shoulder at him and grinned, throwing a husky growl into the air in challenge.

He'd been fighting to maintain some control, letting her set the pace, but that growl of challenge was a clear signal to let go and follow his instincts. And he was more than happy to comply. He ripped the zipper of his undersuit down and peeled it off his body in one fell swoop, then charged her, picked her up, and carried her to the bed, which he promptly dropped her on.

She snarled up at him in indignation, but he didn't care. He descended on her, shredding her clothes and ripping them off of her, the tattered remains clinging to her arms and legs like the shattered remnants of a forgotten dream, and he gazed at her exposed, alien body like a man who'd lost his way, but had found it in her.

An uneasy smile crept over her face as she watched him looking down at her. "Too alien for you, Garrus?"

He felt her voice caress his plates like silk as he focused on her face. He shook his head violently, as if to clear it of some unseen haze that clouded his vision. "No, it's... Surprisingly close to home, and yet... Different." He smiled. "I can deal with different." He harmonized comfort and desire, as he saw her smile become more confident, and he looked back down at her body, marveling at it, as if in reverence.

She had soft patches of thick skin where plates would be on a full turian, and her collarbone was more pronounced than most humans he'd seen. Her waist was very supportive, but thinner than a human's. Her pelvis was wider and shorter than a human's, her hip bones jutting out from the sides of her waist just enough to rip a rumbling purr from his chest.

The muscles under her thick skin were strong like a turian's, but more pliable, hinting at hidden flexibility. He gingerly tucked his talons under the shreds of clothing that remained on her arms and legs, slicing through the fabric cleanly. As he reached the tops of her unusual boots, he gently slipped them off to reveal her very turian-like toes, which she flexed and stretched as they attained freedom. He noted that although the same soft plates were present where they should be, the rest of the skin there was soft, and very human.

His eyes traveled back up to the juncture between her legs, and what he saw there was a perfect blend of turian and human female genitalia. Pink lips peeked out of the thin slit, and he could see a tiny nub of pink flesh at the top, something turian females didn't have. He reached a talon out to touch the tiny hint of flesh, and saw her legs twitch as the tip of his talon touched it ever so lightly. Suddenly her silky voice was reaching out to caress all of his nerves at once again.

"I don't mean to be a kill-joy, but if you plan to play with that, be gentle. It's extremely sensitive." She smirked up at him, trilling comfort. "Also, since you're exploring, I want to show you something else you might find interesting." She purred, reaching for his hand and pulling herself to a sitting position, while guiding his hand to the back of her neck. "Feel." Was her only prompt.

He obliged, tracing the skin upwards from the base of her neck until he ran into a solid barrier. He blinked. He felt an actual plate- no, several plates, trailing up her neck to the back of her skull. They were smaller and farther apart than his, and her strange, silky black human hair was growing out between the plates, but they were true, solid turian plates.

He decided to experiment and rubbed a tiny circle under the top plate. A ripping, snarling, rumbling, growling purr erupted from her chest and tore up through her throat as she threw her head back and closed her eyes, leaning heavily into his touch and gripping his wrist.

Her arousal began to scent the air, and the smell was familiar enough to trigger his own arousal, as he felt his lower plates begin to slowly soften and shift. She regained her composure somewhat, her robust purr still reverberating off the walls of her cabin, and she opened her sky blue eyes to him. He recognized the predatory gleam he saw there, and his mandibles flared out in a broad grin. "Like that, do you?" He asked, and noted the shiver that shook her body as he spoke.

She grinned as she opened her mouth to speak. "Yes, I do. So you know, I respond the way a turian female would, but I have many other places that can be manipulated for pleasure as well. I'll teach them to you as we go along, but right now, I think we both need to relieve some tension."

He watched as a flame sparked in her eyes, and suddenly she pounced on him, throwing him onto his back with remarkable strength and speed. She thoughtfully tucked a pillow under his head to support his neck, then flicked her tongue out to grasp his left mandible, curling around it and stroking from the base to the end, giving the fringe of it a flick of her tongue before she dove under his chin, nipping and suckling at the soft flesh there, trailing kisses and licks down his throat.

She reached the front of his cowl, and grasped it firmly in her right hand, as she nibbled along the seam of his chest, taking his hooked keelbone in her mouth and scraping her teeth along it as she slowly let it escape her lips. She continued down, nipping and licking, keeping a firm grasp on his cowl to hold him down. She reached his lower plates, which she noted were already soft and beginning to moisten, and she smiled as she looked over at him. "Now, you'll have to trust me. I know what I'm doing, in case you hadn't noticed."

His only response was a nod and a very distracted noise of acknowledgment, as his sub-harmonics hummed pure ecstasy. She flicked her tongue out at his softened plates, earning a startled groan from him. She grinned and licked a path from the bottom end of the plates to the top, along the slit. That garnered a jerking thrust of his hips and a keening moan, filled with want. She lapped at the slit until it was fully softened, and gently pushed the thin, lithe end of her tongue in, hearing a stuttering gasp for her efforts as she flicked her tongue against the tip of his now exposed cock.

His body was stiffly arching against her arm, writhing enough to make it difficult to hold onto his cowl, and she finally lifted her head and let go. He burst up from the bed, turning and pinning her down in one quick movement, and stared at her, boring his gaze into hers as his heaving breaths fanned her face. "WHAT... Was... THAT?" He asked, his face displaying both shock and immense desire.

She gave him a very lopsided, cocky grin as she answered. "Something turian females wouldn't dream of doing. Something you'll learn to like very much if we continue to 'ease tension' over the duration of my heat. I told you, trust me. I can take you to places you'll never experience with a full-blooded turian female, if you'll just trust me." She smiled at him and stroked the back of his neck between his plates, trilling reassurance at him. "Now, are you going to let me continue, or are you just going to take me right here and now?"

He growled sharply at the suggestion, snapping at her throat, but he backed off and laid back down, deciding to trust her... For the moment. She leaned up on an elbow and grinned at him, then crawled back to him, laying a hand gently but firmly on his stomach, massaging the soft skin there, as he relaxed and purred to the touch. She leaned back down and continued her ministrations to his lower plates, which had tightened a bit with the lack of attention, and she lathed her tongue along the slit, teasing and prodding gently.

The plates started to soften and shift again, and she again invaded the opening, curling her tongue around the tip of his cock, teasing it out of its hiding place invitingly. As it slowly emerged enough to retract her tongue into her mouth, she welcomed him into her mouth, creating some light suction and flicking her tongue across the tip as she did so.

He was beside himself as the sensation of her mouth around him hit him, and his hips sporadically jerked forwards as his body convulsed, his hands gripping the sheets as his talons tore slits in them. He could tell he was fully emerged, and she was still teasing the tip of his cock, sending white-hot shivers up his spine. He felt her stop, and missed her warm mouth immediately.

She looked up at him. "Are you ready? I don't want to freak you out, but you're about to feel something totally different, and I don't want to get attacked or anything."

He took a ragged breath, and nodded his head. That seemed to be enough confirmation for her, as she ducked her head back down, and as he looked down to watch, she took his entire length into her mouth. At first, he panicked. If a turian woman had done this, he would be in a lot of pain in a matter of seconds. But as she pulled back up, all he felt was hot, sweet suction, and he almost lost all semblance of control and came right then and there.

He somehow managed to fight the urge, though he was groaning and grunting with the herculean effort of it, and as he watched her go down once more, even further this time, he wasn't sure if he could hold back. He felt the tip of his cock constricted by her very tight throat, and his eyes rolled back in his head. When she finally came back up, he held a hand up in surrender. "Wait." He managed to say, between panted breaths.

He tried to catch his breath for a moment, still holding his hand up. He lifted his head to look at her, and gave her a very happy grin. "I trust you, and you were right... But if you do that again... I won't be able... To stop from coming." His head fell back onto the pillow as he finished talking, still trying to breathe evenly.

She chuckled and shook her head. "Don't worry, that's not the first time I've heard that. I'll let you rest for a moment, but I'm not leaving this room until we're both satisfied, so take your break, because you won't be getting another one for a while." This earned a raspy laugh from him, and she laid down beside him, reaching out to softly rub between the plates at the back of his neck.

As he finally started to feel that he was getting enough air to his lungs, he rolled to his side and leaned up on his elbow, looking down at her. She stroked the right side of his face, trailing up his cheekbone and back down his mandible. She had something in her eyes, some emotion that he couldn't decipher. There was no sound coming from her, no expression on her face to explain it, but something was going on in her head at that moment that he couldn't fathom. The next moment, it was gone, replaced by base lust. He flicked a mandible out in an indication of nervousness at the sudden change.

She ducked under his chin, and slicked her tongue across his throat, drawing a purr from him. He mentally shook himself clear of the haze of confusion from what he'd seen in her eyes, and pounced on her, pinning her wrists above her head and prying her legs apart with his own as he laid on her, lathing his tongue along her throat. She stretched and moaned, leaning her head up to give him better access. His eyes widened at the sight; he knew if she did that while in the throes of passion, he would not be able to resist marking her. It was instinct, to lay a claim.

He cast his eyes about in search of her substitution, and saw it lying limply next to where he had been laying on his back. He picked it up and laid it next to her neck, in hopes he would have the sense to use it when the time came. He continued where he'd left off, lapping at her throat, and nipping at her collarbone, coaxing growls and moans from her lips. He experimentally rocked his hips forward, rubbing his length along her slit, which earned a rasping groan from her, an invitation. He nuzzled her cheek, a comforting gesture, and rolled his hips back, placing his tip at her entrance, hovering there for a moment as his sub-harmonics trilled a request for permission.

She harmonized a purr of acceptance, and he couldn't hold back any longer. He plunged into her, burying himself to the hilt in her warm, silky wet depths, and gasped a keening moan along with her as the explosion of sensation sent shockwaves through their bodies. He began a slow pace, sliding in and out of her as warm pleasure spread throughout his body.

She was overwhelmed at his gentleness, the slow, sweet rocking motions, the soft fluttering of his mandible against her cheek... Normally turian sex was a matter of surviving the penetrating, slicing, biting... This was... Something different. Her eyes flew open as the shock hit her when it registered in her mind what _this_ was.

He was making love to her. Her body stiffened in panic. Had he actually noticed the momentary lapse she'd had when she stroked his face? _'No, impossible. Nobody's that observant.'_ Then it hit her, a second shockwave of panic. _'Wait. Yes, _he_ is that observant. Oh, damn. Oh. _SHIT_!'_

He paused and backed up enough to look at her as he felt her body stiffen a second time, when he could tell it wasn't from orgasm. Not this soon. Plus, her sub-harmonics were screaming with panic. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. He could see the panic she was harmonizing mirrored in her eyes, though the rest of her face was a mask of neutrality. He let himself harmonize concern as he spoke. "Taren, what's wrong? Why are you panicking? Did I do something wrong?"

_'Fuck!'_ She slowly shook her head. "No, you didn't do anything wrong."

He raised a browplate at her. He could smell the lie. "Don't lie to me, Taren, what did I do? Tell me what's wrong."

She shut her eyes tightly and tried to gain control of her gale storm of emotions. She opened them to see him glaring at her expectantly. She sighed. "It really wasn't anything you did wrong, I just... I don't know how to explain it. I'm not used to this." She cursed herself for her lack of ability to tell him outright what the problem was, but how could she explain without outing herself? It would be too uncomfortable. And Awkward. Exactly as she'd predicted.

He growled, harmonizing exasperation at her. "Not used to what, Taren? You've had sex with a turian before, right?"

She looked at him like he was crazy. "Of course I have. That's exactly the problem. This isn't... Normal." She shook her head, trilling her own exasperation.

"Taren," he raised himself up on his hands, pulling out of her, "WHAT isn't normal? Speak plainly, tell me what's going on."

She smacked her hand to her forehead, and whimpered. Actually _whimpered_. He took her wrist in his hand and pulled her hand away from her face. As he looked at her, what he'd seen in her eyes that had confused him a few minutes before then suddenly came back tenfold, burning in her gaze and setting his mind on fire. As he tried to understand what he was seeing, she finally spoke, and there was no hint of a lie, instead it was replaced by fear. "I've fucked turians before. Never had any of them make love to me before though. Until you."

He rocked back and sat on his heels, his mandibles and jaw slack with surprise at the revelation.

She continued despite his reaction. "I never thought I'd actually like that, until now. It was the combination of you doing it, and my liking it that cause the panic mode. I'm sorry if I startled you. I'm just not used to... This." She sat up and reached out, stroking from his cheek to his mandible, like she'd done before, trilling comforting, soothing tones. He leaned into the touch, and returned his own peaceful tones.

She smiled at him and let her hand drift down to his keelbone, letting a finger slip into the hook, and gently pulled him down on top of her as she laid back down. She slipped a talon under his chin, and gently pulled his face towards hers, resting her forehead on his. She heard the surprise register in his sub-harmonics, and she hummed back reassurance, nuzzling her forehead against his, before letting her head fall gently back to the pillow.

She reached a hand up behind his neck, and slowly massaged the soft skin under the first and second plate, trying to get him worked up again. His cock hadn't fully retreated, but she knew he needed a bit of help. Her other hand slid down to grasp his length and gently stroke it, as a low purring growl began to rise from his throat.

His body wanted the pleasure, but his mind wanted confirmation that she was alright, that she knew what she'd just done, even though she couldn't possibly be ignorant of the significance of the action. "Taren, are you sure about this? I don't want you to do anything you're not comfortable with."

She smiled sweetly. "Yes, I'm sure Garrus. You've accepted me for who I am, haven't even blinked at me being different, even agreed to do things my way. I couldn't be more sure." She hummed acceptance and affection at him.

He leaned forward and fluttered a mandible against her cheek. He heard her purr and smiled to himself. He slowly entered her again, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close to him. As she twined her arms around his neck, he pulled her with him as he sat back on his heels, letting her straddle him and set the pace this time. He lifted a hand to the back of her neck, gently rubbing between her bottom two plates.

She grinned and leaned back into the touch as she lifted herself up, then sank down again, reveling in the combined sensations of pleasure. She set a slightly faster pace than he had initially, but it was still slow and wonderful. She leaned forward and flicked her tongue along his throat, and began nibbling and suckling along his jawline as he leaned his head back to give her access.

For the first time in her life, when she saw the gesture, she felt the instinctual temptation to bite, to mark. She marveled at the feeling, shaking her head and concentrating on nibbling along the edge of his cowl to keep from acting on it. The temptation kept nagging at her, and she threw her own head back and increased the pace of her rise and fall to distract herself. That worked for a time, though now she could tell he was struggling against it himself, as he nipped at her collarbone with increased ferocity.

She lifted herself completely off if him, deciding to end all temptation, at least on her part, and hooked his keelbone in her finger, pulling him towards her as she got on all fours in front of him. She knew this was a very pleasing position for turian males, all dominance and control, and he took to it like a fish to water. He wrapped his hands around her sides and pushed himself into her, happily increasing the speed of his thrusts, causing snarling purrs to cascade from both of them and bounce off the walls of the small room.

He leaned down and wrapped one arm around her stomach, the other around her chest, and lifted her towards him, so they were both upright, her back to his front as he continued to thrust into her. He licked along the side of her neck, up under her ear, causing a shuddering moan to gush from her lips. She could tell he was getting close, as his urgent grunts and keening moans were becoming more frequent and erratic, and she knew if he didn't have the substitute on hand, she would be marked. She looked around, trying to spot it, and didn't see it anywhere.

He noticed her moving her head around, and he looked at her, watching her look around, hearing the panic start to rise in her sub-harmonics. He chuckled and held the synthetic flesh in front of her face. He'd had it the entire time. He heard her trill relief, and she leaned back into him, reaching a hand up to rub between his neck plates encouragingly.

He growled as her fingers deftly manipulated the sensitive skin, as the combination of pleasures he experienced hit him full force, and he felt it sending him over the edge. He slammed the synthetic flesh into his mouth, clamping down on it and tasting blood as he pierced the bag. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, nipping at her skin as he madly thrust into her repeatedly, feeling her muscles convulse around him as she half cried, half snarled out her orgasm. He followed immediately, spilling his seed into her warmth and thrusting jerkily a few times, before gasping in lungfuls of air and bringing her down with him as he collapsed onto the bed.

As they finally managed to catch their breaths, he realized he still had the synthetic skin in his mouth. And that it was still bleeding everywhere. He opened his mouth and pried the thing off his teeth, putting it on the bedside table for the moment. It had done it's job surprisingly well, though it was a bit softer than the real thing.

His thoughts were interrupted by silk caressing his skin and plates once more. "So, do you think it'll work when I'm in heat?" She asked, pointing in the general direction of her substitute.

He trilled uncertainty. "I don't know. To be honest, I've never been with a female in heat before. I was around one once, but she wouldn't let me near her, she was waiting for the male she intended to bond with. So I really don't know, Taren. It worked pretty well this time."

She sighed. "Well, I guess we'll find out."

He chuckled. "I guess we will."

She turned her head towards him and smiled. "Ready for round two?"

He grinned. "Definitely."

* * *

**A/N: Holy shit long chapter is long. Pretty sure that scene was even longer than the one in Waterfalls. I'm damn proud. Let me know if you liked it, and I'll see you guys soon!**

**Also, I love writing non-human sex scenes. *melts in a puddle***


	7. Chapter 7

**When You're Strange**

**A/N:Yes, here is an update for my rabid fans. I love you all. Now read already. :D  
**

Chapter 7

The mission was a fucking nightmare. If it wasn't the geth tossing giant versions of themselves at them, it was ancient prothean 'barrier curtains', or krogan warlords with fucking ridiculous regeneration abilities. And now the entire place was falling down on top of their heads. Lovely.

As if all of that wasn't bad enough, the whole reason for their wonderful visit to this shithole planet was the asari that was currently running with them as they tried to escape death by crushing, and she was the most naive, childish asari Shepard had ever met. Why the Council wanted this seemingly innocent creature to join Shepard's crew, she couldn't understand. She was shit with guns, and her biotics were so underdeveloped that it would have been funny, if she wasn't the cause of them all nearly dying twice in five minutes. And the 'nearly' part of that equation was still undetermined, pending their escape from the collapsing, shuddering dig site.

Shepard felt her gut twist in a knot, a feeling she only got when something was about to go horribly wrong. It had served her well her whole life, warning her of nearly every bad situation she'd ever gotten into, no matter how unavoidable the situation had been. This time, it gave her the impetus to generate an adrenaline rush of speed, propelling her faster towards the exit of this hell hole.

She turned to check on her teammates, as well as the child asari, and her heart leapt to her throat as she saw a large chunk of rock bounce off of Garrus' shoulder and fall to the floor. She heard him groan in pain, and judging from the position of his shoulder, it was dislocated, at the very least. She stopped and ran back to him, waving Ash and the kid forward. "GO! Don't wait for us!" She yelled at them above the rumbling roar of the shaft collapsing.

She quickly felt under Garrus' now dented shoulder armor, trying to see if his arm was actually broken, and finding it intact, she firmly gripped his arm in both hands, giving him a pointed look. He grimaced and nodded, his mandibles slammed tightly against his teeth. "Alright! One, two-" She shoved his arm back into socket.

Garrus roared with pain, then quickly reigned in the sound as he looked at her with an almost hilarious mix of pain, indignation, and confusion on his face as they both began to run again. "What happened to three?!" He yelled.

She just gave him a smirk, before she dodged out of the way of a falling support beam. "Worked, didn't it?!" She called over her shoulder as she passed him when he had to stop to avoid a falling boulder.

He quickly ran around the obstruction, and caught up to her just as she crested the top of the ramp, setting them both free of the treacherous tunnel of death. They both hunched over for a few moments, catching their breath and collecting themselves. "You're something else Taren. What, I don't know, but something." He huffed out, as he straightened somewhat and cradled his arm to his body.

She grinned at him, then turned to walk down the ramp towards Ash and their small blue charge. "That's why you love me, and you know it." She called teasingly over her shoulder.

Garrus blinked. _Hard_. He flicked a mandible in surprise as he watched her walk away, his gaze following her swaying hips, her generally over-confident swagger. He felt rooted to the spot, the sight captivating him, her words striking a chord somewhere deep in his soul that he didn't recognize the sound of at that moment. He shook his head, clearing it of the fog that seemed to frame her perfect form, blocking out everything but _her_. "Spirits, she's going to be the death of me." He muttered under his breath, as he slowly made his way down the ramp, joining the rest of the group in time to catch the tail end of Shepard talking into her comm unit to Joker.

"-send the shuttle down, I'm done with this pyjak's ass of a planet." She gave the young asari a disgruntled look as she finished speaking.

Joker chimed in on the comm channel. ["Roger Taren. Want me to send a lumber jack with that shuttle? Sounds like you've got a whole tree shoved up your ass."]

Shepard shook her head and grinned. "No, but we might need Chakwas to remove the planet that just got shoved up Garrus' ass."

Joker's grin could be heard over the channel as he responded. ["Roger Taren, should I call the turian fleet in, or can we handle it?"]

Shepard laughed. "I think we can handle this one Joker, it was a small planet."

["Copy that. Normandy out."] Was Joker's only reply, though stifled laughter could be heard as the line cut.

Garrus raised a brow plate at Shepard, but said nothing.

"What? You do kinda look like you had a small planet shoved up your ass recently, bein' all hunched over and shit." She snickered at the visual as Garrus rolled his eyes.

"My shoulder was dislocated." He groaned out, pointing to his injured joint.

"Your point?" She asked with a smirk, which turned into a snicker, which in turn became a full out guffaw, while Garrus glared daggers at her. To Ashley's credit, she tried very hard not to laugh, but failed miserably. The infant asari just looked at them both like they'd grown an extra head each, and Garrus smacked his palm to his forehead plates.

* * *

Once safely aboard the Normandy again, Shepard insisted Garrus go see Dr. Chakwas about his shoulder. He grumbled at first. Shepard insisted, in her usual tactful manner.

"Garrus, if you don't go see her now, I'm going to drag you in there by your fringe. Come on." She headed towards the medbay, hearing a grumbling turian follow sluggishly in her footsteps. Chakwas looked up as the doors to the medbay swished open.

"Ah, Taren. And Garrus! Yes, I heard there was a planetary incident, I hope it's nothing too serious." Chakwas smirked at Garrus as he rolled his eyes and huffed out a groaning sigh.

Shepard grinned as she responded. "Oh it was great, you shoulda been there Doc, there were giant geth shooting at us, rampaging krogan, and oh yeah, a bigass cave trying to crush us. That's what dislocated Garrus' shoulder. It was awesome!"

Chakwas chuckled as she motioned Garrus over to an exam bed. "Come on Garrus, let's take a look at that shoulder. Taren, aren't you needed elsewhere?" She turned to Shepard, giving her a pointed look that screamed 'get out and go do commanderly things while I interrogate my patient'.

Shepard groaned. "Do I have to, Doc? Can't I just stand here and bug the shit out of Garrus? It's so much more fun." She pouted and gave her best puppy dog eyes.

Chakwas wasn't having any of it. "Go on Taren, I can handle things here." As Shepard turned, Chakwas smacked her smartly on the ass, making Shepard jump.

"Hey! That's my ass, damnit!" She stuck her tongue out and walked quickly out of the medbay to go meet with the asari and the rest of her team.

Chakwas smiled and turned back to Garrus, activating her omni-tool in medical scan mode. She tsked as she saw the readings. "My, my, Garrus; I hope you don't plan on doing any left-handed shooting for a while. Those tendons will need time to heal. Take off your shoulder panel, I need to give you an injection." Garrus slowly complied, hissing as the seals let cold air onto the swollen, hot joint.

Chakwas' hands diligently set to work, deftly smearing medi-gel on Garrus' already bruising shoulder. She took the syringe from the tray and stabbed it into his shoulder before he could even blink, quickly pressing the plunger down and removing the needle, swiping more medi-gel over the injection site and nodding. "Alright, now that's done, I have a few questions for you on a different matter." She disposed of the medical equipment and sat on a bed near the one he was seated on, facing him. He shifted on the bed, grimacing a bit as he rolled his shoulder, waiting for her to speak.

She looked at him evenly as she began. "I am asking this out of concern for Taren, she's been a patient of mine ever since David Anderson found her, and she's practically a daughter to me. As her doctor, I have a right to know if anything is affecting her physical or mental well-being in a negative manner, so please answer honestly, and know that it is as uncomfortable for me to ask these questions as it is for you to answer them."

Garrus fidgeted nervously, his mind going to the only place it could at hearing the doctor's words. He desperately hoped it wasn't what the doc had meant, but he knew it had to be. He felt his neck flush bright blue as he looked at her. "Uh, go ahead, doc." He managed.

Chakwas nodded, drawing a long breath in before she spoke. "First, I'll ask the obvious question. Did the substitute work?"

His eyes snapped wide open, then tightly shut as the question hit him. As he slowly opened his eyes, he was met with the older woman looking at him like a mother that had just asked what his intentions were with her daughter. "I uh... Yes, it worked." The words stumbled from his mouth awkwardly.

A small flash of relief flitted across her features as she heard the good news. "Excellent. Now, do you think it will work during her heat?"

He narrowly avoided flinching, though he did grimace a bit at the question. "I'm... Not sure. And Taren and I already discussed this. I've never been with a turian female in heat. I've been around one, but she wouldn't let me near her. So I'm not sure, but I'm going to try damn hard to make sure it works." He couldn't meet her gaze, but to his credit, he managed to sit still.

Her face clouded over with anxiety at his response, but she soldiered on. "I see. Well, let's hope for the best then. I have one more question. I'm not a psychologist, but I'm the closest thing this ship has to one, so I'll ask anyway. How do you feel about this situation? Do you feel like it was forced upon you? Are you willing to do this, or are you just going along with it like a good turian should because it's your commanding officer?"

The direct, rapid-fire questions were starting to wear his nerves thin, but he knew the doc meant well. That fact didn't help his feeling of unease, however; and his recent experiences with Shepard hadn't helped either. "I... I don't know. I mean, I'm willing to help her, and not just because she's my commanding officer, that has nothing to do with it. If she'd been anyone on this ship with the same problem, I would help. But doc... I think... I don't know. I think maybe... Maybe there's more than just easing tension going on here. But I don't know what, or how far it reaches. I'm just kind of treading water here, doc. I'm not really sure what's going to happen, if anything, but it feels like there's more to it than just sex. I don't know how to ask her about it though, she's so..." He huffed a sigh of frustration at his inability to explain it, both to the woman before him, and to himself.

As he finally looked up at her, she could see it in his eyes. She saw a man drowning and looking for a lifeline, but not really sure if he wanted to know the consequences of her throwing him one. She gave him the kindest smile she could muster, and tried to decide how to advise him. She sighed as she made her decision. "Well Garrus, I could speak with her if you'd like, though I'm rather sure she would prefer to speak to you about it. However, I will warn you about one thing with Taren. For all that she may seem to be a woman with a solid grasp on reality and her emotions, she is a very fragile creature, and her past haunts her more than she will ever admit. Be very careful where you tread with her, Garrus."

He could see a desperate plea in her eyes as she spoke, begging him not to break the fragile balance that Shepard had attained. He nodded and looked down at his hands as they lay folded in his lap, and spoke. "I know. She puts on a brave front, but that's all it is, a front. She's told me her story, and I've seen her file. She's been through more than most, and not only lived to tell about it, but thrived for it. I'm not sure how to approach someone like that with something like this. It's like walking up to a krogan and telling them the genophage was completely justified, whether you believe it is or not." He looked up at Chakwas and sighed. "I'll think on it. If you could talk to her, maybe see if she has interest in anyone on the ship... I know it sounds really childish..." He shook his head. "Forget I asked."

She smiled at him as he stood up from the bed, and rested her hand on his arm. He looked at her and gave a small turian smile. "Thanks for patching me up, doc. And for talking."

She nodded. "Anytime, Garrus. My doors are always open." She watched as he walked out of the med bay, and sighed as the doors closed behind him. "Ah, to be young and in love." She murmured to herself, chuckling and shaking her head.

* * *

Wrex's plates had been itching for twenty minutes. When he saw the blue colony markings on the face of the turian as he walked towards the Mako, the itch intensified. He narrowed his eyes at the turian, who completely ignored him as he set about calibrating the guns on the tank via the control panel next to it. He knew the turian had done something to make his plates itch, but he wasn't about to ask him what it was. The only time his plates itched this much was when someone in close proximity to him had recently said or done something about krogans. He huffed in annoyance, and absently rubbed his armored hump against a nearby crate, trying to relieve the agitating sensation.

This action earned a sidelong glance from the nearby human Gunnery Chief. She raised an eyebrow at him, and turned her head towards him. "You know, if you're that anxious, maybe you should ask to spar with Taren. I'm sure she could use it after the mission we just had."

Wrex growled softly and spared the human female only a cursory glance, before nodding his big head and heading to the elevator, fully intending to find Shepard, if for nothing else than to get away from that turian. As solid as the lift was, it creaked every time Wrex used it, and it made his plates itch even worse.

* * *

Shepard laid on her bed, trying to get past the enormous headache she'd gotten from melding with that damned asari child. The vision from the beacon on Eden Prime flashed through her head, bits and pieces starting to make a bit more sense, but for the most part remaining a giant jumble of images and painful sounds. She jerked as she heard her door chime, and slowly sat up, growling at whoever was on the other side of the door.

The chime rang out again, and she snarled loudly at it, finally sweeping her feet over the side of the bed, and standing. The chime rang out again as she walked towards the door, making her roar in agony as the sound assaulted her overly sensitive brain. She slammed her palm into the door trigger, and it faded as the door slid open to reveal a huge, red, agitated krogan. Another growl escaped her throat before she groaned out her question. "What do you want, Wrex? I've got a massive headache thanks to our infantile blue terror, so make it quick."

He raised a brow as he assessed her disheveled state, the sight of her making him forget all about the bother his plates had been giving him for the better part of a half hour. "Damn, Taren. How many thresher maws did you destroy today?"

She stared at him blankly. "Did... You seriously just say that?"

He blinked. "Yeah, why?"

She cocked a hip and rested her hand on it as she responded. "Have you even read my file, you overgrown pyjak?"

Wrex didn't know whether to be insulted, or laugh. He opted for neutrality as he measured her agitated stance. "Yes I have. Your survival on Akuze was impressive." And that's when it dawned on him why his comment had been taken badly. "Oh. Uh, sorry Shepard." He fidgeted, clearly unused to apologizing for anything.

She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. "It's... Alright, Wrex. Now what do you want? This headache isn't going away without sleep." She gazed at him expectantly.

"Well, I was gonna ask if you wanted to spar for a while, but if you're not up to it..." He offered lamely.

"Let me sleep this shit off for a while Wrex. If this damn headache is done when I wake up, I'll spar with ya. If not, a certain asari is getting her own headache, courtesy of my fist." She tried to smile, but it came out as a grimacing smirk.

Wrex gave a throaty laugh and grinned at Shepard. "I'd like to see that."

"If I do it, I'll make sure you have ring side seats." She managed a smile that time.

"Promises, promises Taren. Sleep well." He grinned and walked out of her cabin.

She walked to the door, turning off notifications and locking it on the side panel, then sluggishly carted herself off to her bed, sinking into it and falling asleep almost immediately.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed the update! I did, even though it took me forever to write. lol**

**Comment, or don't. Love to all!**


	8. Chapter 8

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 8

Noveria. It was the coldest, most uninviting planet Shepard had ever visited, and her hatred of the place was only surpassed by Garrus'. He was fine until they finally got their garage pass and the Mako started to roll outside, into the sub-freezing temperatures and blizzard conditions that were a constant on this secretive planet. Both Garrus and Wrex were almost popsicle versions of themselves by the time they'd made the long trek over snowdrifts and geth alike, their only warmth provided by adrenaline rushes from Shepard nearly careening off the edge of the cliff they were driving on, several times.

Shepard was only slightly better off than the two aliens, largely in thanks to being mostly mammalian in nature, though she could definitely feel the chill in her bones as they finally stepped into the Pier 15 facility. The sudden appearance of rachni drones had everyone worried, none more so than Wrex, as he dove into his ancestral memories to relay the fastest way to kill rachni to the other two members of the team. "Grab them by their tentacles, put a boot to their head, and pull. Or, you know, just shoot them. That works too."

Shepard pouted, then smiled as she spoke. "But that's not as fun!" She shot the huge rachni careening towards her, and it fell to the ground in a heap of legs and splattered blood. She turned back to Wrex and shook her head. "See? It's so... Anti-climactic."

Wrex roared in laughter, slapping her on the shoulder. "I like you, Shepard. You get it."

She grinned at him, and turned towards the tram elevator they'd finally made their way to. As they rode it to their transportation to the main facility, she smirked as a thought crossed her mind that at least it moved faster than the elevators on the Citadel.

As they boarded the tram and started it up, she plopped down on one of the rather uncomfortable benches. Garrus followed her example, if with a bit more grace, and took a seat near her, affecting an air of ease despite still being far colder than he'd like. The previous battle had done little to warm him up, and if he hadn't been wearing armor, as well as trying to keep up appearances in front of Wrex, he would be curled up to Shepard, soaking up what warmth she had to offer. He had a feeling Wrex would do the same if he could, though he would certainly never admit to it.

He sneaked a glance at her, wondering what her reaction would be if he just edged... A bit closer. He was both surprised and amused when he saw that her head was slumped onto the back of the bench, her neck and body slack and relaxed as she napped.

He snickered, and Wrex -who had decided to remain standing- gave him a look, then followed his line of sight to Shepard, and started snickering himself as quietly as he could. They both knew she didn't sleep enough, and letting her get rest where she could take it was a small price to pay for her battlefield finesse when she was awake.

The two amused aliens looked at each other, both shaking with the laughter they were trying to quell for their Commander's sake, and doubled over in -mostly- silent laughter. Wrex finally decided to sit on the opposite side of Shepard from Garrus to keep from falling over in his suppressed fit of hysterics.

As soon as Shepard had sat down, she'd started to feel the past few days of missions bear down on her. She hadn't slept for at least seventy-two standard hours, and though she didn't need as much sleep as the average human, it was still beginning to wear on her. She let her guard down for a moment, as it was likely to be a long ride to the facility, and slowly relaxed into the stiff bench, her eyes closing of their own accord. As she dozed off, she was vaguely aware of Garrus sitting down next to her, and she felt a comforting warmth wash over her body, causing her to dive into the black pool of sleep with all the grace of a charging krogan.

As she napped, a strange dream came to her. She was standing on a stage for some reason, in front of a large audience, and music was playing. A microphone was in front of her, and she was obviously meant to be singing to this strange music, but she didn't recognize the song. As she looked out onto the audience, they suddenly started laughing at her. She looked around to find the cause of such hilarity, but didn't find it until she looked down. She was completely butt naked. She tried to cover herself up, but with nothing at hand besides, well, her hands, she didn't have much success. Suddenly, she felt gravity shift, and she woke with a loud snort.

She looked around, and to either side of her were Wrex and Garrus, falling over with quiet laughter. The tram had stopped, and she spoke a little groggily. "Guys, we're here. What's so funny anyway?" She looked at them both in slight wonder as they exploded into raucous laughter, slapping their knees and her shoulder alternately. She blinked, completely bewildered, and stood up, taking in the small tram station outside the tinted windows of their vehicle. She shook her head at both of them after assuring herself that there was nothing of an even mildly funny nature around them, and keyed the door to walk outside.

She turned and watched as her companions slowly gained control of themselves and followed her into the station. She shook her head and trudged on, shrugging off their odd behavior as she headed to the first elevator she saw. The ride down was an awkward affair, Garrus shuffling and Wrex coughing once before the door finally opened back up to spill them out into a large room, with a single person sitting on a chair inside it.

The man seemed distressed for some reason, and was babbling on about rachni and a neutron purge. As soon as he started giving them the vital information of how to activate said purge, a rachni appeared out of nowhere and stabbed him through the chest as the man looked down in a mix of shock and awe, before he was flung aside unceremoniously.

Shepard decided this would be a perfect time to test how accurate Wrex's ancestral memory had been, seeing as there was only one rachni... For now. She charged the creature, grasping its strange tentacles in her armored hands and pulling them wide, as she planted her right boot firmly on its face, effectively blinding it. It screeched and clawed its legs at her, but she held on and yanked back and apart as she kicked her foot into its head. Her boot came down into the rachni's head with speed and power, shattering the membranes between the chitinous armor on it's head. Her boot tread was firmly lodged in it's brain, mashing the gray matter around haphazardly as the creature struggled, its dying effort for survival useless in the face of her assault.

As it finally gave its last twitch, she let go of the tentacles and tried to pull her foot out of its head. It was stuck fast. An exasperated groan escaped her throat, and she looked at Wrex with a mixture of frustration and a plea for help, as she crossed her arms and pouted at him. "This is your fault Wrex. Come pull this thing off me already."

He chuckled and walked over to the abdomen of the rachni, grabbing hold of it and grunting and he started to pick it up. He looked over at Garrus, who was standing there with the remnants of shock from watching Shepard take a rachni's head apart with her foot. "Hold her." Wrex barked at him, giving a satisfied grunt as Garrus complied, wrapping his arms around her waist firmly.

Shepard blushed at the proximity of the turian to her, despite the ridiculous predicament she was in, and she could feel his breath fanning the back of her neck and sending a cold chill down her spine. Wrex roared as he pulled at the rachni, and after yanking her foot back a few times, they finally managed to successfully dislodge her boot from the rachni's head.

She stomped her foot a few times to try and rid her boot of the nasty looking remnants of rachni brain still stubbornly clinging to it, as Wrex dragged the rachni corpse off to a corner. She looked over at Garrus as he backed up a foot or two from her. "Are you alright? I could feel the breath coming from you, and it was cold as the snow outside."

Garrus shook his head and looked off to the side, shame apparent on his features. He'd hoped she wouldn't notice how cold he was. "Yeah, I'm just not at my best when I'm cold. Don't worry, I'm ready for whatever this place throws at me."

She growled at him. She knew he was putting on a tough guy front for either her sake, or the sake of the mission; and she wasn't about to let him go any further if he wasn't on top of his game. She turned to Wrex and smirked as she saw him seated on the rachni corpse, looking about in a bored manner. "Wrex, stay here for a minute, I need to have a chat with Officer Vakarian. We'll be out in a moment." He nodded his big head absently, wiping a bit of rachni blood off his cheek with the back of his gloved hand.

She walked through the door to the next room, noticing the VI console the dead man had mentioned, but not really caring about much else except that the room was clear of any more rachni. As the door closed behind Garrus, she whipped around to face him, what had become known around the ship as her 'commander mask' firmly in place. She gave a half nod with her head as she spoke to him with authority. "Strip. I want you at your best. If this is what I have to do to get you there, so be it." She began releasing the seals on her own armor quickly, stacking the pieces in an orderly fashion against the wall for quick retrieval.

His eyes went wide in surprise, but he obeyed her order, his armor removal completed a few delayed seconds after hers, due to his lowered temperature hampering his mobility. She moved to him, their undersuits the only covering they had from complete nakedness, and wrapped her arms around his waist gently, pressing her body to his in an attempt to share her warmth with him. She heard his mandibles clicking to his face several times in surprise, before he wrapped his freezing arms around her, nuzzling his chin into her hair.

She started rubbing his back to create friction and thus heat, and she felt his throat and chest vibrate as a soft purr curled up from somewhere deep in his stomach. She smiled to herself as her head lay on his chest, just over the lip of his cowl. He started mimicking her actions on her own back, and the friction soon began to feel quite wonderful against her thick skin, finally chasing away the cold chill her spine had carried since she'd felt his freezing breath on her. She flexed her throat and let loose her own soft purr, trilling comfort to him as she moved her hands to his upper arms, never ceasing the rubbing action, trying to impart warmth to his plated frame.

Garrus spoke through his purr, and the velvet gravel of sound that reached her ears sent a hot spark to her senses. "Thank you, Taren. I don't think anyone's ever done this for me before. It feels... Amazing." He flared his mandibles in a happy smile, even though she couldn't see it, and closed his eyes as his body finally started to warm up again. He felt muscles that had been tense with his chilled blood relax and limber up, and his heart began to beat a little faster with the increased blood flow.

She smirked as a thought came to her. "I'm glad this is working. I was thinking I'd have to do something else to warm you up, and we really don't have the time for it."

He could hear the devious mirth in her voice, and it confused him for the few seconds it took for him to catch on to what she was talking about. He chuckled and leaned down to lick her neck once before he replied. "Not that I wouldn't love to act on that idea, but I think Wrex might have something to say about waiting that long."

Her purr grew louder at his tongue on her neck, but she chuckled at his words. "I think you might be right. Still sounds great, but we are on a mission, after all."

He nodded cheerfully, his chin lightly tapping against the side of her head a few times. "Yeah there's that too."

She lifted her head and craned her neck back to look at him, their faces only a few inches apart. "Too bad."

He raised a browplate and smirked impishly at her. "Yeah, too bad."

* * *

Wrex was getting agitated. It had only been about ten minutes since Shepard and the turian had gone in the other room, but it felt like an hour to him. He was pacing the floor next to the rachni corpse, having abandoned it as a seat in his impatience. He was about to head to the door and walk into the room to demand that they get moving, when they both suddenly emerged from it, shoving each other back and forth amicably.

He huffed and walked over to them, letting his annoyance show with a growl as he talked. "What took you so long? Were you screwing or something? Let's go!"

He looked at them agape as they both flushed and looked in any direction but at each other. "Wait..." He pointed at both of them in turn, as if working something over in his head. "You _were_ screwing? HA! I knew it." His self-satisfied smirk grew into a grin as they both looked at him with wide eyes.

Shepard was the first to speak, and she let a growl emphasize her point for her. "No, we weren't screwing, Wrex. I wanted Garrus on top of his game, and he was freezing, so I warmed him up. Nothing sexual involved." She blushed as though she'd lied, but she didn't smell like deception, so Wrex quirked an eyebrow at her.

He gave her a measuring look as he spoke again, letting her know to answer carefully. "Well if what you did was so strictly platonic, you can do it for me. I'm freezing. And I'm not at my best either when I'm cold."

Her eyes were big as saucers as the suggestion filtered through her ears. She looked at Garrus, wondering how he would react. The look on his face was carefully neutral. She knitted her brow at the sight, not really sure what to make of his reaction. She decided to give him a few moments of opportunity to object to the notion, should he desire to. She turned to Wrex and responded finally. "Fine, but give me a few minutes, I need to warm myself back up. Turians are some cold sons o' bitches and he soaked the heat right outta me like a sponge."

She risked a glance at Garrus' face as she finished speaking to Wrex, who had shrugged and walked back to his rachni chair. Garrus' face was the same mask of neutrality it had been before, and it both puzzled and vexed her greatly. She didn't know what to think, or how to act; and with Garrus having no input on the situation, she decided to just go with it. She needed her team to perform well, no exceptions. If that meant nuzzling up to a krogan to achieve that goal, then so be it.

She set about warming herself back up, walking brusquely around the room and rubbing her arms and torso quickly. Sometimes it was a rather large burden, being the only person with mammalian physiology in the room. Fortunately the room wasn't too cold, so it didn't take her long to warm back up to slightly above her normal temperature, though a slight chill had settled into her bones since she'd stepped foot into the Mako.

She walked around to Wrex and nodded to him as she had done to Garrus. "Strip."

"What?" To say he was surprised at her order would be putting it mildly.

She huffed a sigh at him. "If you want to get warm, you need to take your armor off. Keep the undersuit on. I'll do the same." She said, her face clearly displaying her annoyance at the situation.

Understanding finally dawned on Wrex's face, though it was still edged with a bit of confusion. He slowly reached his clawed fingers to the clasps of his armor, watching her remove hers and lay the pieces against the wall in order of removal. As they both stood in their undersuits looking at each other awkwardly, she sighed.

"Ok, don't be alarmed, I have no weapons and I'm not going to try and hurt you. I'm going to have to get very close to you to warm you up though, so don't freak out if I uh... Hug you. Or something." She shook her head and palmed her face exasperatedly.

Wrex didn't know whether to laugh or reach out in sympathy for his poor Commander, but he opted for a little of both as he chuckled and grabbed her warm shoulder, pulling her near to him. "Shepard, you helped me get my family's armor. I trust you, whatever it is you're wanting to do. And if it'll help warm me up, I'll put up with whatever weird human thing a hug is."

She snorted and shook her head. "Fine, you big lug. Just don't rip my spine out or something." She mumbled, and promptly threaded her arms under his, around his wide ribcage, and pressed her body to his as her hands began their dance of warming friction on his back. She felt him stiffen up at the contact at first, then slowly relax as he absorbed heat from her body. She froze for a moment as she heard a very soft purr come from his throat. When nothing else happened, she continued her rubbing, and she soon found herself enclosed in the arms of a purring krogan battlemaster.

She barely managed to keep herself from giggling at the improbability of the situation. Then she realized that the very large body she was trying to warm up was starting to lean into her heavily. "Uhh, Wrex?" She asked. She looked up at his face and saw his eyes very close to being completely closed, his face completely relaxed and peaceful. It was one of the cutest things she'd ever seen, though she'd never tell him that. She stopped rubbing and brought her hands to his shoulders to steady him, and hopefully keep him upright. She wasn't sure how good of an idea it was, but she didn't have many options, so she shook him lightly. "Wrex, wake up." She said, deciding shouting would startle him, and she didn't want to risk jolting him awake.

He mumbled something unintelligible, and she sighed, looking back at Garrus with a desperate plea in her eyes.

Garrus shook his head severely. "Ohh no, you got yourself into this mess, you get yourself out." He sounded... Angry, and oddly enough, hurt.

She quirked an eyebrow at his tone, listening to what sub-harmonics he didn't clamp down on, and hearing sadness, of all things. She flexed her throat and let hers sound a question and sympathy, but he quickly stopped all sounds coming from him, and sat down on the floor with his back to a wall, looking straight ahead at nothing. She trilled her own sadness, and longing slipped out before she realized it, earning a sharp look from him. She quickly turned back to Wrex to hide her flushing neck.

As she glared at the sleeping krogan, she wondered if he could actually sleep on his feet without her holding him steady. She pushed him back a tad to straighten him, and sighed in relief when he didn't fall over. She backed away and swiftly put her armor back on, before slowly putting Wrex's armor back on his sleeping form.

It was a tiny bit creepy to watch him sleeping like that. As she snapped the final piece on, she backed away as the auto-sealing suit began to hiss with the sealing process. It woke Wrex immediately, and he jumped a bit as he focused in on Shepard standing about ten feet away from him. "Shepard." Was all he said at first, then he looked around and remembered where he was, and what happened. "Did... I fall asleep?" He asked a bit sheepishly.

She smiled at him and nodded. "'Don't worry, ya big lug, I won't tell anyone. Guess you like being held more than you thought." She teased him, and he grumbled, giving her a bit of a death glare, though it softened into the tiniest of smiles before he turned to pick up and holster his weapons.

She walked to the dead scientist laying on the floor, and rummaged through his pockets. She found the passcard with the neutron purge activation code on it, and she stood, turning to her men and nodding. "Come on. Let's get this over with, we've got other things to do now that you two are _finally_ warm again."

She trudged into the room with the VI station and activated it, voicing the activation code for the neutron purge. The VI notified them of the time limit, and Shepard nodded, knowing how close the elevator was. They'd get there in plenty of time. Then they all heard the chorus of rachni screams from the other room. They barely had time for a glance at each other, before they bolted for the door. As it opened, the horde of rachni on the other side began to converge on them.

Shepard and Wrex began blasting them out of the way with biotics, as Garrus let loose assault rifle fire into the heart of the group blocking their escape path, downing several before he got close to them. Too late, he saw the one on the right as it climbed over the bodies of it's dead companions and launched itself at him, only to be swept aside and splattered against the wall by a biotic push from Shepard's outstretched hand. He flung himself into the elevator, waiting only seconds as he watched Shepard and Wrex charge in after him before he smashed his fist into the elevator toggle, sealing the door and sending them upwards, away from the purge cycle that only had ten seconds left, according to his omni-tool.

They all sank to the elevator floor in relief, catching their breaths and letting out huge whistling sighs at what they'd just escaped from. Garrus looked at Shepard, and caught her gaze as he nodded to her. "Thanks, Taren. You saved my ass back there."

She smirked, holding her hand over the long gash on her arm. She'd earned it for helping him, but she wasn't about to tell him that. "Any time, Garrus. Any time."

* * *

This chapter was entirely unplanned. Everything that happened was just my fingers fumbling around on the keyboard. It was NOT the chapter I'd planned when I sat down to write it, but it's here, so yeah. Deal with it. :P

Review, or don't. Expect the next chapter within a few days. Hopefully.


	9. Chapter 9

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 9

**A/N: To remind you guys, when Shepard and Garrus are alone, they're speaking Turian Common, unless I state otherwise. Mkay? Yes? Good. Now read. :D**

The rest of the mission was just about pure hell. Shepard was glad she'd warmed her teammates up, as they were in a near constant firefight for the rest of the mission. Matriarch Benezia ordered all the security to attack Shepard's group, and they had to fight their way to the hot labs, only to see an asari in a really stupid looking hat standing at the top of a set of stairs. She had a superior sneer on her face as she spoke to them, and her voice was as icy cold as the planet itself. Shepard couldn't believe that the bumbling asari child she'd rescued came from this ice queen.

After her speech about being a mother and power, she froze Shepard and her team in a stasis field, giving her commandos and a few geth time to filter into the room. Once the stasis field wore off, they snapped into action, swiftly obliterating the geth, and forcing the commandos into a corner before finishing them off as well. Two more waves of geth and commandos later, they stood in front of Benezia as she spilled her guts about Saren's plans, about the Mu relay, about indoctrination. She handed them a data disk with the location of the relay on it, and turned towards the giant rachni in the glass case behind her, as she spoke about struggling against Saren's indoctrination, feeling his talons on her spine, his teeth on her neck.

Shepard had to suppress a shudder of pleasure as her mind went to disturbing places at the Matriarch's words, and she shook her head once, violently, as she focused on the scene playing out before her. She witnessed the Matriarch's struggle, and in the glimpses she showed of her non-indoctrinated self, Shepard could finally see how Liara could have been her child. The woman had kindness and genuine warmth in her heart. The icy demeanor was from Saren's taint; not natural to the asari before her.

Shepard looked at the woman with sympathy as she asked after her daughter, and she told the woman that Liara was safe and would remain so. The asari let her gratitude show for just a moment, before she groaned loudly, declaring that Saren was winning, that she couldn't fight it any more-

Then the mask of ice settled on her face again, and she faced them fully with a look of angry determination on her face, and spoke. "Die."

It was three highly trained, armed soldiers against one powerful Matriarch. It wasn't an easy fight, but the outcome was inevitable. As the asari fell, seemingly melting into the wall behind her, she asked that someone tell her 'little wing' she loved her, then her face became haunted with dismay as her eyes glazed over. "No light! They always said there would be a...Light." Her body slumped, her own bright light extinguished, and Shepard sighed heavily, he shoulders sagging as she turned to the huge rachni that had to be none other but the rachni queen.

As she looked in at the hulking creature, it slapped some... Part of itself to the glass, and kept it there. Shepard heard a shuffling sound behind her, and one of the _dead_ commandos walked up to her, passed her as she stepped aside in shock, and turned laboriously, facing the group.

The asari opened her mouth and a decidedly non-asari voice came out, speaking in strange, halting sentences that made very little sense. When Shepard finally understood what the queen was asking her, she pondered her options carefully. Wrex interrupted her stream of thought with a dam of indignation.

"Shepard, millions of my people gave their lives to stop these bugs from taking over the galaxy before. Are you really thinking about letting it happen again? Is there even room to consider it? My people were neutered for their efforts. If you let that thing live today, you're spitting in the face of every krogan life ever lost to the rachni and the genophage." By the time he'd finished speaking, he was roaring at her and his eyes were bright with anger and indignation.

She looked at him with determination, her jaw set and her eyes small blue orbs of ice. "Wrex, I don't like it any more than you do, but you heard what the queen said. Her people were indoctrinated, they weren't in their right minds. Have you already forgotten the way Benezia was just acting? Did you see how different she was from when Saren's grip tightened on her, to when she was her own self? Night and fucking day. You know I don't give a damn about killing things, but if I kill this queen, the last of her kind that isn't indoctrinated or insane, it would be worse than if I'd given the damn genophage to the krogan myself. Think about that before you accuse me of not having my priorities straight. Besides, if they're willing to fight the reapers, they could be a powerful ally, and you, of all people, know it."

His eyes widened and she could see a slow, burning anger there, but he finally broke eye contact with her, grudgingly admitting his defeat. "Fine, Shepard. I still don't like it, but you've made your point." He walked off to lean against a railing, not wishing to watch her showing mercy to the creature that represented the last dregs of an enemy his people had given everything to defeat.

Shepard sighed heavily and turned back to the queen, ignoring the asari she still had under her thrall, and nodded. "I hope you keep your word. If you don't, I'll be facing a firing squad for being a war criminal in a few years."

The queen assured her of her sincerity in her own strange way of speaking, and Shepard nodded as she punched the release on the console, watching as she huge case slowly ground upwards. The queen watched Shepard and spoke through the asari once more, thanking her for her kindness, and telling her that her children would sing songs in her honor for her generosity. She looked at the opening hatch, then back at Shepard once more, seeming to nod before she raced out of the case into the open air of Noveria. The asari slumped down to the ground, lifeless once more, and Shepard slumped down next to her, back against the glass as she rubbed the bridge of her small nose between her thumb and forefinger.

* * *

As Shepard boarded the Normandy, she practically ran to her quarters, quickly stripping off her armor and throwing each piece to the ground viciously. She yanked a uniform from her closet and headed straight for the showers, thanking the Spirits and whatever gods her father may have worshiped that nobody else had decided to use the facilities at that moment. She dove into her locker, retrieving her toiletries and a large towel, setting everything up on a shelf near the back of the shower. She stripped out of her undersuit and tossed it down the laundry chute for repair and washing.

As she reached to turn on the hot water, she realized the long gash on her arm was deeper than she'd thought. She creased her brow together as she walked over to the medi-gel dispensary and grabbed a pack, biting it open and slathering the cooling gel onto the wound. As she watched the skin slowly knit together, she sat on the shower floor, back against the wall, knees up, behind the small cover of a cold steel partition wall. She folded her uninjured arm over her knees, and rested her forehead on it.

She heard the door swish open, but decided to ignore it, hoping the person would just take a piss and leave her the hell alone.

She was never that lucky.

She heard some shuffling, the sound of an undersuit zipper being pulled down, hard feet on the metal floor, a few male grunts, a sigh. She sat there in silence, waiting for the obviously non-human invader to show himself, wishing she could just melt into the wall and not be bothered by anyone for just once. She heard talons click against the sides of one of the sinks, and another sigh. After a few moments, a deafeningly high-pitched screeching sound came from the general vicinity of the invader, and her head jerked up to see Garrus gripping the sides of the metal sink, his talons digging into it and creating the gods-awful sound that was currently assaulting her ears.

Before she could object to the racket, his sub-harmonics began to scream with agony and frustration, and a feral growl ripped its way out of his throat, melding into a roar of anger as he reared back, then slammed his head plates against the mirror in front of him, spidering the safety glass and leaving a deep indentation that warped his features in the mirror view she had of him from where she sat. He stood straight, releasing the sink, which now had a double row of lines etched into its sides, and walked towards his locker. She heard him rummaging around in it, and let her head fall back to the shower wall as she braced herself for his eventual discovery of her presence.

She heard him grasp some things in his hands, and the locker door slammed shut. Or, at least she thought it had. Apparently it hadn't, as she heard a growl of agitation, and something small fall as he smashed the locker door again. Then the growl grew louder and she heard him kick the fucking door multiple times like it'd stolen all his credits, and several items either fell out of it, or fell out of his hands as he attacked the hapless metal door. One last kick made the metal obey him finally, and he snatched the items off the floor and huffed. She heard him stomp his feet as he moved with purpose towards the showers.

She tensed as he neared the point where he could see her, and as he made to pass by her, he froze, catching something that wasn't supposed to be there in his peripheral vision. His eyes snapped to her, roving over her form, then locking eyes with her for a second, before quickly looking away and drooping his head in shame as his neck flushed the deepest blue she'd ever seen.

He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, eyes flickering to her face for a microsecond as he opened his mouth to speak, mandibles pressed tightly to his face. "How long have you been there?"

She flexed her throat and trilled comforting tones to him as she replied. "Did you see or hear me come in? No? Then that's how long I've been here." She would've been amused at his question if he wasn't in such a disturbing mood. As it was, she was determined to figure out what the fuck was wrong with him, because it obviously wasn't good, if the wanton destruction of ship property was any indication.

His jaw clenched tightly as he heard her answer, and he glared daggers at her. She looked at him steadily, seemingly unaffected. He sighed, and looked away in defeat. She slowly stood and moved to him, taking the items in his hands from him gently, and placing them in order of use on the low partition wall she'd just been using as cover.

She turned back to him and placed her hand on his now folded arms, tugging gently, trilling encouragement and solidarity to him. He grimaced, but relented, letting her pull him to her as she wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her elbows on his cowl. She nuzzled into his neck, purring and trilling relaxing tones to him as she released her grip on his neck to reach behind her and turn the shower on, letting the water pour down over their joined forms freely.

She replaced her arm around his neck and cooed a soft melody to him as the water rushed its warmth over them, relaxing tight muscles and washing the horrid day away. He slowly relaxed and laid his arms gently around her waist, resting the side of his face against hers, fluttering his mandible against her cheek affectionately.

She couldn't return the gesture in the same way, so she stroked down the plates on the back of his neck soothingly, carefully avoiding the soft patches of skin between and above his plates. She wasn't trying to elicit _that_ reaction right now, she just wanted to comfort him.

Apparently, it was working, as he sighed and relaxed, and she felt most of the tension he'd been trying to deal with leave his body with that sigh. She smiled and let herself trill happy tones at him, as well as a bit of relief. He trilled gratitude and comfort, as well as affection bordering on the possessive tone she had only ever heard her mother use towards her father. She stiffened slightly at the sound, and he noticed, quickly harmonizing a question.

She flexed her throat so she wouldn't have to concentrate on clamping down on her sub-harmonics, and continued to hum the quiet tune she'd been using to soothe him, though it didn't have quite the impact it had before, and she knew it. She grimaced as he moved his hands up to her shoulders and pushed her back, holding her only far enough away to see her face, which she'd slipped a neutral mask onto as she felt and predicted the actions he would take in his curiosity.

She decided to turn the situation to her favor if she could, and spoke before he could. "Want to tell me what had you so upset earlier? I'm here if you need someone to talk to. Or a shoulder to cry on, I guess." She smiled encouragingly at him, but the smile faltered slightly as she could see determination bloom in his ice blue eyes.

His gaze never faltered as he spoke. "Don't think you're getting away with it this time, Taren. My problems and yours are interwoven, and we need to hash them out and deal with this before it becomes an even larger problem than it already is. We're going to be honest with each other, and if we're doing that..." He pressed the side of her throat where her inhibitor implant lay, buried under layers of thick skin and muscle. It deactivated at his incredibly accurate touch. "Then we need all our cards on the table. No clamping down, no hiding who and what we are, or what we are really feeling. I'm tired of games. I can tell now that you're about to go into heat within a day or so, and we need to get things out of the way before anyone does or says anything they'll regret."

As she looked up at him, he saw, heard, and smelled genuine fear come from her for the first time. Her sub-harmonics were trilling high in panic, begging and pleading with him not to continue, but he knew he must for both their sakes, and he hummed reassurance and calm back to her, softly leaning down and nuzzling his forehead into hers.

She sniffed, seeing if he'd released his marking scent with the action, but only smelled their lightly combined normal musk, made slightly stronger by the moisture in the air. She carefully returned the gesture once he pulled back, holding back her own marking scent as he had. He smiled as she pulled back, sweeping her wet locks back from her forehead to reveal the tiny, delicate plates near her hairline, and he nuzzled them affectionately, testing the waters as he trilled the same tone he'd used moments before that had made her clamp down on everything.

He didn't hear any sound at all in return, and when he backed away to look at her, her face was a mask of concentration. He thought she was clamping down again, until he looked into her eyes, and saw the sadness there. He heard as that sadness finally translated into sound, and he placed his hands on either side of her face, brushing her cheeks with his thumbs. "Tell me, Taren. What's wrong?"

She tried to look away, but his hands held her gently and firmly in place, forcing her to look at him. Her eyes were glassy, and starting to redden slightly, all signs that she was crying. He'd thought it had just been the water rushing over her face, but now he knew that it had only mixed with the tears that were flowing freely from her eyes. He trilled comfort and sadness at his discovery, and his hands abandoned their posts at her face as his arms wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her into a caressing embrace. "_Spirits_, Taren, tell me what's wrong. I want to help. Please, _let me in_."

She rested her head in the crook of his neck and wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him to her tightly as she let a sob escape her lips. Her halting voice was uneven, wavering with sorrow as she finally spoke, harmonizing a hint of her own personal hell as she did. "I don't know what to do, Garrus. This... I don't know how to deal with this. I know if I let myself go the direction I'm going in, I'll just end up getting hurt. You'll leave, and I'll be alone, and I can't deal with that again. I know that tone you were using, and I want to respond, Garrus, I do, but-"

He interrupted her, suddenly breaking his embrace on her, ducking down to her face and grasping her head in his hands again, silencing her with a kiss. It didn't last long, but it was enough to let him show her how he felt, as he trilled a strongly possessive and loving sound at her, only breaking the kiss to press his forehead to hers, his tone changing to one of asking, no, _begging_ permission. "I'm not going _anywhere_, Taren. I'll be here until you make me leave."

She sobbed hard as her tears trickled onto both their cheeks, hot and desperate, as she tried to clamp down on her sub-harmonics, but failed. They screamed permission and acceptance, as she cupped his face in her hands and they released their marking scents together, both laying claim to someone as a mate for the first time. Her scent was fainter than his, but any turian encountering either one of them in the next month would know exactly what their status was, without having to look for a mark.

She went from sobbing to laughing, her throat still tight and choking the sound, but her sub-harmonics were clear enough. She trilled happiness and possessive affection at him, though it was still edged with shrill panic. He'd never heard such a strange combination, but his heart still leapt at the sound of her affection for him. It was too early to say the words, too soon to delve into voicing it in a language others on the ship could understand. But it was enough, for now.

She looked around, and slowly moved a few inches away from him, smiling shyly and reaching for her shampoo. "We're in a shower, the rest of the crew won't wait forever for us to get out of here, you know." She said it in a teasing tone, but she was trilling suggestions at him, and he responded in kind. She laughed and shook her head, nuzzling her forehead to his. "Later. We really do need to get out of here. Besides, I still need to talk to Liara. Not that I'm looking forward to it, but I still have to do it." She sighed sadly at the overwhelming burdens of command. She knew it was unavoidable, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

He trilled comfort at her, and grabbed the shampoo from her, trilling a question as he looked at the bottle.

She laughed. "It's for my hair. I don't know if you can... Well, try it. Here, I'll put some in your hand, then just lather it into all my hair and rub it in. Just be gentle. It's not like a fringe, it can be cut easily and it's easy to pull out, which isn't very pleasant, let me tell you." She opened the top and squeezed the bottle over his outstretched hand, then snapped the lid shut and set it aside. She dipped her head under the rushing water and soaked her hair, then turned her back to him and moved out of the water, closer to him.

He wasn't exactly sure what to do, so he smeared the soapy gel onto her hair and started rubbing it into the spot he'd slathered it on. It wasn't very effective, and he huffed, trilling uncertainty and frustration. She giggled and took over for a few moments, trilling in an instructional tone, then switching to encouraging as she dropped her hands to her sides. He tried to mimic the motions her five fingers had performed with his three, with mild success. She trilled purring relaxation as he gently massaged her scalp, leaning into him with a small smile on her lips. He returned the purr as his confidence grew, and he continued the motion for a few more moments, letting them both relax.

Once her hair was white with bubbly lather, he removed his hands and trilled question at her once again. She pulled away from him and threaded her fingers into her hair. Judging that it was ready for a rinse, she ducked under the water and started working the suds out of her hair, the white foam giving way to silky black strands that lay smoothly down her back. He'd seen hair before, but watching the water move through such a silken example was something he was surprised to be enjoying the sight of quite a bit, and he tentatively reached out to feel it, to see if it was as smooth as it looked.

As she felt his touch, she let her hands fall away as he explored, running his talons through her thick strands. He marveled at the combination of the sight and feeling of it as it poured through his fingers like some sort of satin sand, the sensation unique to her, amongst anything he'd ever experienced before. He reveled in it, stroking her watery hair with one hand, and twining his free arm around her waist, pulling her against him under the water, nuzzling her hair and letting it fall over a mandible to test it on something more sensitive than his rough, scaled fingers.

He groaned and purred in pleasure at the discovery. She smiled as she felt his mandible flicker and rub lightly against her scalp, letting him explore whatever he wanted to, glad he'd found something he especially liked about her strange body. She relaxed into his plated frame for a moment, resting her arm on his around her waist and curling her five fingers around his three. She trilled happiness and heard it back from him, edged with wonder. She grinned at the wonder and reached up, stroking the mandible that wasn't threading her hair reassuringly.

She trilled regret as she began to pull away in search of her body wash. She didn't make it very far, as he trilled a demand for her to stay with him, and didn't loosen his hold on her waist. She sighed. "Garrus, we've got to get showers and get out of here. The crew will start to wonder, and those doors don't have locks." She trilled annoyance at the fact, and he trilled sadness, then suddenly _need_ back at her. That got her attention, and sent a spiraling flicker of heat straight to the middle of her legs.

She craned her neck to look back at him. "Oh, Garrus... You have no idea how much I'd love to, but after, in my quarters. Where I can lock the door." She couldn't see him very well from her skewed view, but he seemed to have a strange look on his face. She turned in his grasp, releasing his arm as she faced him. He tightened his grip on her once she was face to face with him, releasing her hair in favor of reinforcing his other arm to pull her to him possessively. She raised an eyebrow at this, but what really took her by surprise was the look on his face.

She'd seen almost that exact look before, just not quite as intense, on every turian male she'd ever fucked. Something she couldn't place that was normal in that situation was missing, but the sheer intensity of his gaze stunned her and froze her to the spot, unable to look anywhere but his eyes as they burned with the fire of a thousand suns. Then came the one part of the scene that had eluded her memory a moment ago. His low purr slowly progressed in volume until it was a soft growl, then grew unto a deep, guttural vibration that shook his mandibles violently.

And there it was, the unmistakable mating call of a male turian. It may have been subtle and strange to most who weren't turian, but to her it was like flashing neon signs and loud alarms that screamed 'HEY! MATE WITH ME! OVER HERE! YEAH! ME!'. She felt her stomach drop as she realized why he was so suddenly having this reaction to her. She'd just gone into heat.

_'Oh, shit.'_

* * *

**A/N: DUN-DUN-DUN! So yeah, cliffhanger, also, this is the second chapter in a row where sex has been suggested, but has not occurred. Yes, I'm a terrible, awful, mean, evil tease. Deal with it. :P**

**Dunno when the next chapter will be out, I've typed over 8k words tonight so I'm fucking tired. I'm going to bed nao. kthxbai. :D**

**Review or don't, whatever. blargh. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...**


	10. Chapter 10

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 10

**A/N: Hiya guys! So this chapter commemorates the 50th follower, as well as over 5,000 views! Yay! This is my most popular story yet! I wonder why? :P**

**Also, I got the turian word for bond mate from taking the literal latin translation: Vinculum Materia, and combining the two words, then shortening it. I know nobody cares. I just like to list my sources. ^.^**

**So, lots of crazy stuff coming, events some might see as happening too soon, and other crap that's just plain awesome. So yeah. Read already. :D**

* * *

Her eyes were wide, her sobvocals trilling alarm as she looked at him. Her throat was tight, and she didn't trust her voice at the moment, but she knew she had to snap him out of his current state before someone walked in on some very rough, bloody sex. "G-Garrus... Come on, wake up; we've got to get to my quarters. You know we can't do this in here." She was pleading with him, her sub-harmonics begging him to heed her.

He wasn't listening.

His mating call became more pronounced as the seconds wore into a minute, and she could smell his mating musk starting to release and fill the room. She had to do something drastic to contain the situation, and quickly. "**GARRUS!**" She growled at him, switching from the commoner's dialect to that of a commanding officer, "**Snap out of it! We have to get out of here!**" She held her breath as she prayed to anyone that would listen that her words would carry enough weight to shake him out of his daze.

Thankfully, that seemed to register with him, somewhere in the back of his mind. His mating call and musk subsided, and the wild lust he'd had in his eyes began to give way to a small amount of clarity. He released her with a growl, snapping at her throat once before backing off, facing away from her as he spoke in the subordinate's dialect, as if on auto-pilot. "_I'm sorry. I'll meet you in your quarters_." He grabbed his towel and wrapped it around himself, before exiting the room.

She watched as the doors closed behind him, and she finally released the breath she'd been holding. She partially collapsed into the wall behind her and took a few deep, steadying gasps of air as she trilled relief to the empty room. She turned her attention to the water running over her thick skin, and snatched her body wash and loofah from the shelf she'd set it on, quickly lathering it up and scrubbing herself down thoroughly.

Her mind was running a thousand miles an hour as she cleaned herself, subconsciously paying more attention to her neck than strictly necessary as she thought about what was about to happen. She knew, and she knew that he knew, that there was about to be a marking. The one thing she'd denied to so many other turians over the years would be the one thing she would have to accept now. She'd accepted him, just as he'd accepted her; but that undeniable fact didn't make it any easier on her nerves. She was scared stiff, and she knew she reeked of fear.

Just then, the sound of the shower door opening carried over to her small ears, and she spun around, dreading seeing Garrus there, only to see the hulking frame of Wrex in his undersuit. She had to brace her hand against the wall to keep from falling into a puddle of relief on the floor, her action gaining an odd look from the krogan as he stepped inside the doors and started stripping out of his undersuit. She noticed him sniffing the air suddenly, as he stilled, his half-naked form rigid as his eyes went wide. "Shepard... Why do I smell marking and mating musks in here? For that matter, why do you smell like you're in heat? I didn't think humans went into heat." His face was the Webster's dictionary definition of confusion and suspicion as he looked at her.

She smacked her hand to her forehead as her neck flushed so darkly it was almost purple. Of course, the ONE person besides her and Garrus on the ship that could know all of these things, would be the one that happened to come in RIGHT after it had all happened. Naturally. She let her hand fall and gave him a pleading look. "I... Shit, Wrex... I really don't have time to explain, but I promise I will when I do have time. Just please, don't mention this to anyone. I don't need the whole ship knowing, or thinking they know anything. Please, just do that for me."

He gave her an odd look for a moment, then nodded; though it was obvious he was only allowing the delay out of respect for her. "Alright, Shepard. Don't take too long though."

Relief flooded her face, and she nodded at him emphatically. "Yes, don't worry, I'll tell you everything, but I need to finish my shower and _go_." She hurriedly rinsed herself off and grabbed her things, scooping up Garrus' forgotten toiletries as well, and stuffing them all in her locker haphazardly, earning yet another strange look from Wrex. She grabbed her towel and wrapped herself in it just as the shower doors opened, and she raced towards her quarters as quickly as she could without flashing everyone in the mess hall.

Kaidan heard the odd sound of something clicking against the floor rapidly, in the pattern one would normally hear from running feet, and he noticed a pale flash of movement in the periphery of his vision, and turned just in time to hear Shepard's door open and close. He shook his head at the sound, and his commanding officer's shyness, wondering how she made it through boot camp if she was that shy. He turned back to his normal post with a shrug, seeing that nobody else in the mess had noticed the scene, and resumed his duties.

What Shepard was met with once she entered her quarters was not what she'd expected. She'd expected to see a barely contained turian about to pounce her and fuck her ragged; instead, Garrus was sitting, apparently calm, on the end of her bed, trilling worry. She turned and locked the door, turning off notifications as well, then slowly walked towards him, tentatively looking at his face. As she neared him, it became less and less of a neutral mask, and a look of longing and hunger began to overtake his tight control.

She trilled concern and question as she came upon him, unsure of why he was trying to control himself in this, a private setting. Normally, as far as she'd experienced, she would already be bent over a random piece of furniture, being subjected to a snapping, snarling cacophony of turian sex. This was not normal. The only sound issuing from him was a choked, quiet trill of possessive affection, edged with worry and strain.

She again trilled concern and cocked her head slightly, the tone turning to worry as he simply sat and stared at her, a mere foot away. She slowly reached her hand out to cup his face, trilling comfort, and he leaned into the touch, sounding affection; though it was still edged with the strangled worry he'd been screaming since she entered the room.

She finally decided enough was enough. "What's wrong?" She asked, her curiosity eating her alive.

He let out a huge sigh, and his shoulders slumped as he broke eye contact and lowered his head. His voice was soft and halting as he spoke, as if something were lodged firmly in his throat that he couldn't clear. "Are you sure this is what you want, Taren? You know if we do this, I won't be able to hold back from marking you as my bondmate. I care about you, and I don't want you to regret this. If you tell me to leave, I will. If that's what you want, tell me now, because I don't know how much longer I can hold out." He looked back up to her eyes as he choked the last words out, sorrow and pain pouring from his eyes and sub-harmonics.

A single tear escaped her eyes as she lifted her other hand to hold his face fully between her two hands, bending her body to lower her face to his. "Garrus Vakarian, if I didn't want this, I wouldn't have allowed you to put your marking scent on me, would I? I know it's not easy right now, but for fuck's sake, _think_, turian. You're the only one I've ever marked. Do you think I would do that if I didn't care about you? I... I know this is all very sudden, and I can understand you being worried; I'm worried too, but this..." She gestured between the two of them, "This is something special. There's a... A connection here. I can't ignore it, any more than you can, and I refuse to. If you're sure, then I'm sure."

She heard him trill hope. She hummed reassurance and affection, then closed the few inches between their faces, nuzzling his plates with hers, stroking his cheeks gently and releasing her marking scent once again. She smelled his join hers in the air, and smiled. She straightened, tugging at his towel, which he slowly removed before tugging on hers with a shy smirk. She smiled slyly and let her lust show in her eyes as she picked the soft cloth off of her body and held it up to the side, then dropping it to the ground, where it puddled in a crumpled heap.

She saw the lustful haze he'd had in his eyes in the shower return, and she pressed her hand against his cowl, pushing him back onto the bed, and straddled him, grinding herself roughly against his lower plates before lowering her head to the side of his face, taking his left mandible in her mouth and suckling on it lightly. He groaned at her and bucked his hips suggestively, flashing a grin at her as she rocked back from his motion, sighing a soft moan.

She looked down at him and smiled affectionately, then gripped his cowl, curling her talons into the flesh behind it. She growled a challenge, then grinned devilishly. "Take me, Vima. Make me yours."

His eyes went wide as he heard her use the turian term for 'bond mate', and a warmth flowed over him that threatened to drown him. He finally recognized the chord that had been plucked in his soul on Therum, the strange look that she'd given him when they'd first been intimate; it all came flooding to him in a rush, and he found himself on top of her, nuzzling into her neck and keening a whimpering tone of gratitude at her.

She smiled happily at his swift reaction, and tilted her head to the side, giving him better access. Suddenly, she felt him enter her, and she purred a moan as he slowly began to thrust. She felt his razor sharp teeth grazing her neck, his hot breath tracing the thin lines his teeth drew on her flesh, and she trilled pleasure edged with a small tone of impatience at his teasing. She felt his mandibles flare in a grin as he heard her tone.

He backed up to look her in the eyes as he pulled almost completely out of her, then slammed himself inside her, watching her reaction as her body arched up against him, her face a mix of shock and pleasure. He trailed his tongue from her throat to just under her ear, where he stopped and nuzzled into her cheek, fluttering his mandible against her skin. This time, it was he that spoke in the dialect of authority, making sure she understood his intentions. "**Patience, Vima. You'll be mine by the time we're done here**." He felt her shudder beneath him at his words.

She felt a shrill rush claim her body as she heard him speak, and despite her feelings on using it, she opted for the subordinate's dialect as she responded. "_I'll not be the only one that is 'owned', Vima._" She smirked as he withdrew from her enough to see her face. His browplates were raised in surprise for only a moment, before giving way to primal lust and desire. She hooked her legs over his hip spurs and locked her ankles behind him, pulling him into her deeply as they both keened moans at the combined sensations of pleasure.

He thrusted into her over and over, with animal lust overwhelming his senses, his pace erratic and rapid as what little control he had finally gave way to blinding pleasure. He lowered his mouth to her throat, nipping harshly at it with his hard mouthplates, using what little flexibility there was in them to tug at her skin, leaving little mauve blotches behind. He was nearing the edge of the cliff of his control, and he knew that the biggest moment of his life was about to happen.

He chanced a look into her eyes, and saw the same emotions he was feeling reflected there. He saw her bare her neck for him once more, and that was all it took for him to dive off that cliff into the vibrant depths of ecstasy. He aimed for the sweet spot at the crook of her neck and shoulder, and opened his jaw wide, rushing into the embrace of her scent and the taste of her blood as it seeped slowly into his mouth. He held her there, thrusting for all he was worth, his ears ringing with her cries of pleasure and growls of pain, as her sub-harmonics screamed fulfillment and happiness.

She felt his pace slacken and he slowly released her flesh, lapping at the wounds he'd created to help seal them. He backed off and gazed at her, a sated look in his eyes. As she saw her blood on his teeth and mouth, a fire lit in her own eyes, and her sub-harmonics threw demand against him. It was her turn, and she knew it. A slight smirk crossed his face, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her with him as he rolled them over, letting her be on top.

She humphed in satisfaction at the arrangement, hitching her ankles over his thighs for stability, and launching herself forward on him. She released his thighs and curled her foots' talons under his thighs, pricking at them gently to encourage him to continue thrusting. He eagerly complied, and she rewarded him as she lathed her tongue along his throat, trailing up under his jawline and occasionally flicking up to wrap around his mandible, earning a purring groan from him for her attentions.

She moved slowly to his mouthplates, kissing his plated face along the way, and prodded between the plates with her tongue, seeking entry. He opened his mouth, and her long tongue burst inside, curling around his tongue and tasting her blood, which permeated every corner of his mouth. She moaned at the combined flavors of his tongue and her blood, fervently meeting his thrusts with her own as the flavor increased her arousal tenfold. She broke the kiss as her head flew back, her back arching in pleasure.

As she looked back down at him, he tilted his head to the side, exposing his neck fully to her, and she bared her teeth in a lustful grin, a purring growl erupting from her throat. She slowly lowered herself, keeping eye contact with him until she passed down to his neck, and nuzzled into his skin roughly, parting her lips and scraping the flesh with her sharp teeth teasingly.

He keened frustration and desire at her, and she chuckled darkly, ghosting her teeth along his neck until she settled over the spot instinct called her to. She kissed it softly, lapping her tongue over the spot to soften it, hearing his frustration and anticipation mount. She grinned into his flesh, then opened her mouth wide, sinking her teeth into his moistened skin with a bit more force than he'd had to use, but she pierced his tough surface nonetheless, garnering a growl and sigh of satisfaction from him. His thrusts became erratic and disjointed, and she slowly released him, licking his fresh wound as he had hers.

She raised herself up and met his thrusts with her own gyrations, gasping as her orgasm, sweet and satisfying, consumed her. At the sight of her teeth dripping with his own blood, combined with the feeling of her clamping down around his cock, he came, spilling his offering inside her and growling with wild abandon. She collapsed on his carapace, her fingers tracing over her new bond mark as she tried to regain oxygen in her lungs. She smiled at the soreness she felt from the tiny rows of bites, and purred as she nuzzled onto his chest, just beside his keelbone.

He purred in response, trilling happy notes and stroking her back with his hand. He couldn't believe the insanity of the past week. It was the week that would forever change his life, forever mark him as a new turian, forever make him wonder if he hadn't decided to go to that clinic, at that moment, where he would be now.

Definitely not laying in a bed, with his bondmate curled onto his carapace. Definitely not having an exciting life, touring the galaxy on a state-of-the-art hybrid ship, with a hybrid Spectre as a commanding officer. He chuckled at that thought. The turian-human hybrid ship and her turian-human hybrid captain. It was a perfect match, like fate had intervened to make sure the mission would succeed. His chest swelled with pride, and he knew then that this was no coincidence, this was providence.

He heard her sigh softly and barely caught what she mumbled with her mouth pressed into his chest, "Wha'so funny?"

He chuckled and nuzzled the top of her head. "Sleepy already?"

She mumbled something unintelligible, then jerked upwards with a start. "Shit. I still have to talk to Liara." She groaned and flopped over on her pillows beside him, whimpering into them and half-heartedly punching the pillow a few times in frustration. She turned her head to look at him, and found him propped up on his elbow, watching her with amusement. She huffed a few strands of hair out of her face, then gave him a dirty look. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Vima. You'll get yours." She smirked and rolled her eyes as she made to get out of bed.

She didn't get very far.

"One more round, then you can go talk to Liara." He whispered into her ear with a purr.


	11. Chapter 11

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 11

**A/N: Hello all! So yeah, holy crap. Over 7,000 views now, and this story just keeps growing in popularity. I'm so honored you guys like this story so much! I've tried to keep the quality up for you guys, I hope I've succeeded.**

**Also, as a bit of a side note: I'm not gonna beg for reviews, as I personally don't really care to see authors begging for reviews, but, I will request that IF you fave or follow this story, please do leave a review letting me know why you liked it. Input helps me write what you want, so don't skimp out if you're going to fave/follow anyway. If you've just read it, and don't plan on faving/following, that's cool too! No need to leave a review if that's the case, and I hope you find something else you like. :) Just makes sense to me: I don't fave/follow anything without leaving a review and letting the author know WHY I appreciate their work. A fave/follow doesn't tell me anything, other than a reader liked some aspect or another of the story. I'd like to know what it is. And wall of text. I'll stop now. XD**

***Kaidan lovers beware, I am NOT nice to him in this chapter. Nor am I ever likely to be. Jus' sayin'.***

**Sorry for the super long A/N, now on to the story! Read already. :P**

Talking to Liara hadn't been nearly as much of a harrowing experience as Shepard had thought it would be. As much as it was obvious that the asari felt the loss keenly, she understood it was unavoidable, and was glad to receive her mother's final message to her.

After a short talk with Chakwas about Liara's emotional state, Shepard headed for her quarters, flicking her wrist to activate her omni-tool chip, and pinging Wrex. She owed him a long conversation. When his reply of "_About time, I'm bored. Heading up._" reached her, she barely suppressed a chuckle at the krogan Battlemaster's impatience. She waited just outside the door to her quarters, and she noticed Kaidan leveling her with a glare that looked a little more than accusatory. She arched an eyebrow at him, wondering exactly what the fuck his problem was.

Then it dawned on her. He ALWAYS stands there, right outside the walls to her cabin, and her and Garrus weren't exactly... _quiet_ lovers. Her eyes widened sharply at the realization, but she maintained his gaze, locking eyes with him impetuously, daring him to make something of it. Who was _he_, of ALL people, to have something negative to say about who she chose to mate with? He was nothing to her, and she _should_ have been nothing to him, besides his commanding officer. Beyond that, she was a Spectre, gods damn him; she didn't have to follow alliance regs anymore, so why the fuck was he STILL trying to match her in a stare-down?

She heard the elevator to the cargo bay groaning with Wrex's weight behind her, but she kept her eyes on Alenko. She was NOT going to lose this, he WOULD back down, if she had to pin him with her talons on his throat to the fucking wall! She heard the elevator doors swish open behind her, and Wrex's heavy footsteps exiting, followed by an unexpected second set of lighter, though still hefty footsteps.

Both sets of feet stilled behind her, and she could smell the fear beginning to roll off of Alenko as he saw Wrex and Garrus standing behind her, though she had to give him credit, he did not break her vicious gaze. Garrus finally spoke up, his anger obvious in is sub-harmonics as he spoke, "What did he do, Vima?" She could feel the barely controlled rage rising from him in a blazing heatwave, and knew if she didn't do something fast, Garrus or Wrex would be sitting over a pulpy mass of flesh, with a skull and spine freshly ripped out of Alenko's twitching body.

She raised her fist in the air, a signal to _hold_, as she took a few steps to close the distance between herself and the prissy human biotic she'd barely bothered to learn the name of, only as a courtesy to Anderson. She came to a halt, mere inches away from his face, and sneered at him, giving him an up-close and personal tour of her razor-sharp rows of very non-human teeth, which he didn't seem to notice. Venom dripped from her voice as she spoke quietly enough that only Kaidan would be able to hear, "Alenko, if you have something to say, say it, otherwise back the fuck down before something... unpleasant happens." Her sneer turned into an evil, malicious grin as she added: "To you."

Kaidan froze, uncertainty clear on his face as a conflict boiled within his mind. He'd been wanting her to himself ever since he laid eyes on her, even though he could never get her to give him the time of day. On the one hand, he desperately wanted to confront his... _Commander_... About the noises he'd heard in her quarters, and the fact that the ONLY male seen exiting at any point afterwards was a _turian_, of all things. On the other hand, the two aliens standing a few feet behind her looked as though they wanted to reach down his throat, rip his heart out, and eat it. Shepard wasn't looking like she was too far from a similar action herself; and was he losing it, or was she... _growling_?

He decided, rather than risk bodily harm to himself, to comply with Shepard's wishes... for now. He huffed out a clearly annoyed and reluctant sigh, and lowered his eyes. He knew it was only a temporary retreat; he WOULD find out what was going on with Shepard, and why she had completely ignored him - despite his best efforts - for a fucking _turian_. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, not meeting anyone's eyes as he stood and fumed over his defeat. If only the krogan and turian hadn't shown up...

Shepard turned her back on Alenko, deciding to let him reconsider his actions, and waved her hand in the direction of her cabin as she faced her alien teammates. They stood to the side, letting her pass unobstructed, though they both turned and gave death glares at the human biotic, before about facing and following Shepard. As they entered her cabin, they saw her pacing back and forth beside her desk, worrying her right thumb talon with her teeth.

Wrex was the first to speak this time around, and his voice, though even, was still a bit perturbed. "What's going on around here, Shepard? First the shit in the shower, now that beady eyed human trying to win a staring match with you; fill in the blanks here, because I'm a little confused." He crossed his arms and leaned against a small shelf that looked very much like it was not designed to have that much weight put against it from _any_ angle.

Garrus gave Wrex a confused look, tilting his head to the side. "Wait... shit in the shower? What happened in the shower?"

Shepard could hear him trilling alarm edged with fire, and he waved him down. "Don't worry, nothing to cause concern on your part, Vima. He smelled our musks and my heat, which is why he's here. I'm gonna have to let him in on my erm... little secret."

Garrus calmed visibly at her words, though now he was trilling a bit of nervousness at her. She flexed her throat and chimed reassurance back at him; she knew Wrex would understand. Or at least, she _hoped_ he did.

Wrex swatted at the air around his head in annoyance. "Would you two stop that? I can hear that, you know, even if I can't translate it. It's making my plates itch." Something must've occurred to him then, as his eyes widened in surprise, then he cocked his head at Shepard in confusion. "Wait, I know turians can do that, how are YOU doing that, Shepard?" He pointed at her for emphasis, his two red eyes staring at her in challenge.

She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose before meeting his eyes with her own. "Wrex, I'm going to give you the condensed version of the story, because I think the whole thing would bore you, and I'm frankly tired of telling it. Only three people on this ship know about it, and that's only because one is practically my mother, the other is a friend, and the third... is my bond mate." She paused to let that sink in for a moment, as she could see his eyes widened at her mention of the third person.

She gestured to the low couch in the room in passing as she flopped onto it, letting her frustration with having to tell this story _again_ show plainly on her face. She watched as Garrus took a seat right next to her, Wrex soon following, albeit a bit farther down the couch, feeling the heavy alien's impact from where she sat on the opposite end.

Giving a clipped nod, she looked over at Wrex as she began to speak once more. "My grandmother was a crazy scientist trying to create a super soldier during the Fist Contact war, she forced human and turian DNA to work together to create a child, my mother, my mother met a human, fell in love, they killed my grandmother, they married and had me, against all odds. Then they were killed when batarian slavers came to our little farming colony on Mindior, I killed my would-be captors, David Anderson showed up with a platoon of alliance soldiers, carted me off, my first and only Doctor ever was Chakwas. Ashley is the other person I told. Garrus is my bond mate."

She'd never witnessed a krogan looking completely dumbfounded until that moment. She bit her lip, _hard_, as she tried to keep from laughing. She hadn't even realized they were capable of that expression, even as Wrex fought to gain control of it once again. She felt Garrus' body shaking, and realized she wasn't the only one trying her damnedest to hold back laughter. The realization almost made her lose it. Almost.

As Wrex's face finally returned to something resembling his normal look of sheer boredom, he managed to blurt out, "You're part turian?!" His eyes still betraying the feeling of bewilderment he still had buzzing around under his crest.

Shepard nodded in acknowledgment. "Yes, which should explain the whole me being in heat thing for you. And, just in case you don't believe me..." She kicked her right boot off and flung her leg over Garrus' lap to show Wrex her very non-human feet. "I'm surprised you didn't notice in the shower. Then again, you were probably too distracted by what you smelled to be looking for anything this unusual." She said, a slight smirk playing on her lips.

Wrex stared at her feet, slight wonder betraying the calm mask he was desperately trying to maintain. He'd killed enough humans and turians to know that what he was looking at didn't entirely belong to either species. She had to be telling the truth; besides, he didn't smell any hint of a lie from her. Two things still tickled the back of his mind though, and he wasn't going to leave without answers. "So, how long have you known the turian here? And I still want to know what that puny human's problem was."

Both Garrus and Shepard's necks flushed in their respective colors of embarrassment, though Shepard was the first to recover. "Uhm... Yeah. I recruited Garrus just before we came to find you at C-SEC. We've only known each other as long as you've known me. We just kind of... fell into it. I can't explain it." She smiled and looked up at Garrus as he turned to look at her, returning her smile with a wide, happy turian grin.

This elicited a disgusted groan from the old krogan. "Euch, I don't need to see that. Take that lovey-dovey shit somewhere else." He waved his hand at them as if to brush something putrid off his armor.

Shepard coughed. "You know, Wrex, you are in our quarters, so if you don't want to see it, it's not my fault you're in here." She smirked as she watched the realization settle in his head, then continued, "Anyway, as far as Alenko is concerned, I have an idea of what happened. I believe he has an interest in me, and he may have heard Garrus and I... blowing off steam." She flushed for the second time in the past five minutes. "However, it doesn't matter what he may or may not feel for me, he has no rights to me, nor will he ever. If he continues to make an issue of this, I will deal with him personally, and most likely violently."

Wrex chuckled at that. "Is there any other way?"

Shepard and Garrus both laughed. "Yes, but the other ways aren't nearly as fun!" She said, grinning at Wrex.

Suddenly, Joker's voice on the intercom broke into their joviality. ["Shepard, the Council is requesting a conference."]

Shepard groaned. "Got it, Joker, I'll be up there in a minute. Don't stress yourself patching them through, wouldn't want you to break a hip." She teased him.

["Wouldn't dream of it, Shepard; if I broke a hip, Chakwas have to use that stick up your ass to splint it, and I'm not too sure I want to know what's been up there with that stick. Speaking of which, did Garrus ever get that planet removed?"]

Shepard doubled over laughing and Wrex joined her. "Joker you asshole! You're so full of shit, I doubt even Garrus' small planet could hold it all!"

A chuckle could be heard over the line as Joker quipped, ["I think the inhabitants of said planet might have something to say about that, if they weren't complaining about still being shoved up Garrus' backside."] There was a pause, a console beeping, then Joker spoke again, ["Uhh, Shepard, the Council is getting a little bit impatient. Might wanna get up to the comm room."]

She was still smiling, despite the Council's annoyance. "Roger that, Joker. I'll be up in a minute."

She turned to the aliens gracing her couch, and made a fancy bow, waving her hand in tight circles. "Duty calls, gentlemen. I trust you can see yourself out, Wrex? Oh, and please keep what we've discussed to yourself, I don't need the whole ship knowing everything about me, unless I choose to tell them."

Wrex nodded his big head and stood, walking out of the room with his usual complete lack of grace.

Shepard turned to Garrus and walked over to him, leaning down to nuzzle her plates against his through her thick bangs. "I'll see you in a bit, Vima." She paused, backing up to look at him, soaking him in. "While I'm talking to the three stooges, you should bring your stuff up here and settle in. I can't have my Vima sleeping amongst the general riff-raff." She smiled and leaned in once more, planting a chaste kiss on his lips before straightening, sighing, and walking out of the room, leaving a smiling turian in her wake.

She trudged up the stairs and sauntered into the comm room, activating the console there to patch the Council in.

The asari councilor spoke first. "Shepard. We need you to investigate a situation on Virmire."

Yep, it's a short one. There's more coming, don't worry! I'm just reeeeaaaallllyyyy sleeeepppyyyyy. Love!


	12. Chapter 12

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 12

**A/N: **

**/rant **

**Sooo there's going to be gratuitous (not kidding) violence, described (severe) gore, (really) sensitive material, and (seriously) crazy shit happening in this chapter. Also tossing a warning in here for triggers (intro to rape, not actual rape, but still)... IF YOU HAVE A WEAK CONSTITUTION, DO. NOT. READ. THIS. CHAPTER! SERIOUSLY. If you are underage, or just frail of mind, have high blood pressure, low blood pressure, are prone to heart issues, or shock easily, DO NOT READ THIS CHAPTER! Have I covered my ass enough yet? Seriously, if you read this and want to bitch about it, or try to sue me for being damaged or otherwise offended by the contents of this chapter after I've told you not to read it because there's some seriously fucked up shit in here, you're an idiot.**

**Kaidan Alenko fans BEWARE: He is getting the SHIT beaten out of him in this chapter. Also, he may or may not be blown up on Virmire. I haven't decided yet, and that's next chapter. My fingers will do the deciding there. But my fans have requested- no, DEMANDED a Kaidan beatdown, and I am going to deliver, come hell or high water. But mostly I just can't stand the fucker, so it was inevitable, you guys just made it happen even more violently. :D A few even suggested airlocking him. As much as I would love to do that, no. It's too good of a death.**

**That's pretty bad, isn't it? I've got issues. -.- Most of them are named Kaidan. The rest are named Udina and Kai Leng. **

**OH AND JUST TO BE CRYSTAL FUCKING CLEAR HERE PEOPLE: I do NOT hate Kaidan in the game. I don't like him much, but I don't hate him. THIS Kaidan is the one I hate. MY Kaidan. For THIS story alone. So don't come bitching to me about Kaidan not being like this in the game. I know he isn't. I don't think that AT ALL. The characters in this story are not your beloved characters from the game. This is a rewrite, and they are different. Some have similarities. Some don't. Kaidan is one that doesn't.**

**Also, this is a ret-con of this chapter. Never thought I'd do it, but I did. I wanted to make it clearer why he deserved the treatment he got. It was more than a bit fuzzy before. **

**Now it should be obvious even to CERTAIN PEOPLE who shall not be named. _**

**/end rant**

**TIME TO WRITE CHAPTER NAO KTHXBAI :D**

Shepard's plates were itching. Scratch that, they were BURNING. She was in the mess hall after a long talk with the Council about some idiot salarians that apparently got lost on Virmire, and she was trying to find something in the cabinets that didn't either smell repulsive, or make her blow up like a balloon from allergies.

This was her curse when she went into heat. NOTHING but alcohol and pickles smelled edible during it, and neither of those were something she could actually live on as a biotic. And everything she was only mildly allergic to normally, she was deathly allergic to while in heat.

And to top it all off with a nice, lovely little rotten cherry, Kaidan was standing less than four feet away, staring at her like a love-sick idiot.

She'd wished, prayed, and begged to any spirits that would listen that he would move his ass away from the only source of nutrients on the ship, but no, of course not. She couldn't possibly be that lucky. She heard Garrus trilling death threats that Kaidan couldn't hear. Garrus had settled down at the table behind her, and she had to smirk a little at the sound.

She looked over her shoulder at him and grinned, winking at him. She flexed her throat and trilled the equivalent of 'watch this shit' at him. She flexed her throat once more, straightened, faced Kaidan, and closed the distance between them until she was less than a foot away.

She made sure her 'Commander mask' was in place before she spoke. "So Kaidan, want to tell me why you challenged me to a staring contest earlier? Seemed a bit of an inappropriate thing to initiate towards your commanding officer."

Kaidan squared his shoulders off, glancing quickly at Garrus before returning her gaze evenly. "I think you have an idea, Commander; considering you threatened bodily harm to me after I did it."

She held up a taloned finger, waving it in front of him and 'tsking' at him, "Oh my, no, Kaidan. I didn't threaten bodily harm from myself at all. I simply meant that if you didn't back down, one of the two very large aliens behind me - one of them being my bond-mate - might have taken exception to you challenging their commanding officer, whom they are both quite loyal to."

She smirked as she saw the surprise register on Kaidan's face. "As you know, neither turians nor krogan are lacking in violent tendencies, so continuing to challenge me in front of them would be a bad idea for anyone. Now, I believe I asked you a question, soldier. I expect an answer." She folded her arms across her chest, cocking back on her right hip as she waited for him to answer. She heard Garrus trilling mild humor from the table. He knew what was coming, even if Kaidan didn't have a clue.

His widened eyes shifted to Garrus, then back to hers as he lowered his voice in an attempt to keep Garrus from hearing him. "You're bonded to Garrus? Shepard, he's a _turian_! And you just met! You've got to be joking."

Shepard sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose tiredly. She lowered her voice to match his, maintaining the pretense for his sake that Garrus couldn't hear them if they lowered their voices. "Kaidan, don't ask me to explain it, it just happened. Does this look like I'm joking?" She pulled the collar of her shirt down, revealing the still very angry red bite wound from Garrus.

Kaidan's eyes widened almost impossibly further as he stared at the fresh marking, his jaw slackening in shock. "Holy... that's... wow, turians really are serious about marking their territory, aren't they?"

Shepard barked out a laugh. "Yeah, you might say that. You should see the mark I left on him."

Kaidan ripped his eyes from the scabbing teeth marks on the crook of her neck to her eyes instantly. "You bit him?" When she nodded her affirmation, his mouth gaped a bit more. "Wow, you weren't kidding then."

Shepard shook her head minutely, then leveled her serene eyes at him. "So, as I asked earlier, why did you decide it was such a wonderful idea to stare down your commanding officer?"

His stance deflated slightly, but he kept his eyes on hers as he responded. "Fine. If you really want to know could we talk about it in private? I'm not interested in the whole ship hearing about it through scuttlebutt." He jerked his chin ever so slightly at Garrus, and Shepard couldn't hold back her smirk.

She spoke in a perfectly level volume. "Very well, come to my office, and we'll talk privately." She flexed her throat as she about faced, trilling an invitation to Garrus, then flexing again as she entered her and Garrus' room.

Garrus waited until Kaidan was nearly in the cabin before he got up to follow. As he quietly entered, he saw Shepard facing him and Kaidan, who had his back foolishly turned to the door. The door closed behind him, and he waited for the inevitable scene to unfold.

Kaidan began as soon as he heard the door shut. "Commander, may I speak freely?"

She nodded. "This isn't a military ship, Kaidan; of course you can." Her face betrayed absolutely no emotion, the mask she had in place flawlessly neutral.

Kaidan sighed. "I want you, Shepard. I've wanted you since I first saw you, but I didn't want to say anything because you were Alliance back then, and I didn't want to break regs. But you're a Spectre now, the same rules don't apply."

He narrowed his eyes at her, scrutinizing her as he continued. "I also think this whole bonding thing is a farce. You've known the guy what, a week? Two? There's no way a life-long bond can form that quickly, and you know it. When I heard what I heard yesterday, and saw that fucking turian exit your quarters hours later I couldn't help but be jealous. I was mad. I still am. That's why I was staring. That's why I didn't back down until you pretty much ordered me to."

He took a step forward, grasped her face in both hands, leaned in, and kissed her. She stood stock still, not moving any part of her anatomy, and waited for him to back off. The problem was, he didn't.

He kept at it, involving his hands now, as they traveled slowly up her arms to her breasts, cupping them harshly. He moved his head to the side, burying his face in the unmarked side of her neck, teasing the skin there with his lips at first, then his teeth. He bit just hard enough for her to feel it, and snaked his tongue up to her ear, where he paused to utter a few breathy words.

"So, you like it rough, Shepard? I can be rough. I can be rougher than that damn turian ever dreamed of being. Just tell me how you like it." He lifted his head, leaning back to look at her face, a sneering grin plastered on his face as he gloated in triumph.

She tried to lift her hands up to punch him, push him, do _something_to get him away from her, but she found her limbs immobilized. Glancing down, she realized that her feelings of disgust and anger towards him had overridden her other senses, numbing her to the tell-tale tingle of biotic energy that now held her captive. As dread settled in her gut, her eyes traced the current of energy to Kaidan's hands, which softly glowed with a faint blue hue of electricity.

She felt the paralysis slowly creep up her spine, recognizing the feeling of a slow stasis too late to act against it, as her eyes widened. She tried to flex her throat to trill a note of desperation to Garrus, but found her brain's commands to her muscles futile against the paralyzing biotic onslaught.

Kaidan chuckled darkly, seeming to enjoy the moment as he tilted his head to the side, his features taking on a look of superiority as he finally spoke. "How does it feel, Shepard? How does it feel to have all that control you've worked for so many years to achieve be ripped away, bit by bit? Is it freeing?"

He lifted a hand to trace along her jawline, admiring his prize. "You don't have to worry about what to do, what to say; only about what you feel. That control you lord over every one of us, reduced to nothing but a whisper by a single thought. My thought. My will. The great Commander Shepard, reduced to my plaything. Never thought I'd live to see the day." He grinned maliciously in his victory.

A single tear escaped her eye as her mind spasmed with anxiety and fear, willing every possible force in the universe to come down on the human before her and crush him into nothingness.

That force presented itself loudly, with a dangerously feral roar.

Her eyes flicked to a spot behind the human, as Kaidan's eyes widened with fear, and he whipped around to find the source of the threatening cacophony. When he saw Garrus towering over him, and saw the bloodlust in his eyes, he froze to the spot. He managed an "Oh SHI-" before his airway was cut off by Garrus' hand, which grabbed him tightly by his neck, talons gouging into Kaidan's skin, and slung him hard into the now locked door, pinning him there with adrenaline-fueled turian strength.

Garrus' maw opened wide as he roared his rage at the human, his fringe flaring up in a threatening display of pure rage. "YOU! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU ARE WORTHY OF TOUCHING HER? YOU ARE NO ONE! YOU ARE NOTHING! YOU ARE AN INSECT AND I WILL SQUASH YOU LIKE THE INSIGNIFICANT BUG THAT YOU ARE!"

He tightened his hold on Kaidan's neck, and reared back, his fist coming forth with the fury of a thousand storms in a left hook that made Shepard wonder how the human's cheekbone didn't shatter. He lifted the same arm upwards, about to come down on Kaidan's face with his claws, when Shepard finally managed to trill a command to stop.

Garrus' distraction had proved to be enough for Kaidan to lose his concentration on the stasis field he'd held her in, and it faded far more quickly than it had begun. As she gained the full use of her body again, she walked over to the two males locked in a heated standoff against her door.

She'd never been so turned on in her life as she watched her bondmate deal with this despicable human, but she'd seen the blue biotic haze come over the human after the first punch, and Garrus had no defense against biotics. She did, if she was prepared to do so.

She spoke in her most seductive, rasping voice as she curled her hands gently around the arm that was holding Kaidan to the door, "Let me, Vima." She nipped his left mandible sharply, and felt it begin to rattle with his mating call. She grinned at him and looked back at his talons, which were still lodged firmly in the sides of the human's neck, then back to Garrus, and nodded. "I will teach him to mind his place. Go and wait for me, I won't be long." She said, nodding towards their bed.

Garrus kept his hold on the human long enough to lean down and nip at his Vima's bond mark smartly, causing her to moan and growl a promise of things to come at him, before he let go, and the human fell to the floor, coughing weakly and gasping for air. Shepard snapped her teeth at her mate as he backed away towards the bed, then she spun about to the pitiful human propped up against the door.

She raised a biotic barrier, not something that was normally a part of her arsenal, but she'd been well trained in her abilities, and had more than a few tricks up her sleeve. She reached through her barrier and grasped Kaidan's neck, slipping her shorter talons into the same holes that Garrus had made, though not quite as deeply, and made some new holes with her two extra taloned fingers.

She grinned devilishly at him, letting her voice drip with venom as she spoke, "Ohhh dear Kaidan. You are in grave danger now. Not from me, mind you; but from every turian that ever sees your face from this day forth. The scars I am about to put on you will mark you as an interloper, a traitor, a betrayer of trusts. You have come between a bonded, mated pair, something that any person of any species should have enough common sense to never attempt, and yet you did. You knew, and you ignored it, saw the marks, and you pursued me _still_, even going so far as to threaten me, and call me your plaything. ME? Your _play_thing? I think not."

She leaned closely into his face, baring her sharp teeth at him before she spoke again. "If we were on Palaven, you would be marked, then strung up by your genitals as an example to all, and only let down once you fell down from your dick rotting off. Then the stump would be sterilized, cauterized, and you would be a eunuch for the rest of your days, subject to anyone's whims, whether they be violent or... otherwise. Even the most idiotic people I've ever met know not to FUCK with a MATED, BONDED, TURIAN PAIR!" Spit flew from her lips onto his face as she screamed at him, the fire of hate and disgust beginning to rage in her eyes.

She reared her hand up as Garrus had, and this was the moment he'd been waiting for. He threw a heavy push at her, knocking down her barrier and managing to shove her back a foot. Her talons raked deeply from the holes she'd dug them into to the front of his throat as she was pushed backwards, and he clutched his neck as he abruptly began to bleed out.

She roared in fury and blindly charged him, slashing down his face and leaving five thin, vertical slashes from his forehead to his chin. Only then, once turian traditional justice had been served, did she notice that the amount of blood leaving his neck was far more than it should have been.

"FUCK! Vima, help me get him to the medbay, he made me slice his jugular open, the stupid prick!" She looked back at her mate, her subharmonics trilling demand. "I didn't want to kill him Vima, just mark him for his shameful crime, COME ON!"

Garrus finally snapped to, waking from the lustful, hate-fueled rage just enough to comply with his mate's wishes. He got up and rushed to her side, taking one side of the bleeding human while she took the other, and flung a command to his omni-tool to unlock the door, palming the interface and rushing through it quickly. Kaidan was out cold before they got to the medbay.

Chakwas looked up in shock at the scene rushing into her medbay, and sprang into action. "What the hell happened to him? Get him up here." She pointed to one of the beds, "Keep pressure on his jugular! My God, Taren, what happened? These look like... talon marks. My god. What have you done?" She looked between the two people in the room with turian blood in their veins, before beginning to methodically tend to her patient. "You two have a LOT of explaining to do."

She grabbed several medical instruments and various supplies, quickly placing them on a tray and laying the tray on the stand next to the bed. She began tending to the worst side of Kaidan's neck, stemming the blood flow; patching, stitching, and injecting medi-gel as she went.

As soon as she was done there, she moved to the side that Shepard was still applying pressure to. She patched him up again, then ran to the blood storage, grabbing the appropriate bags and starting the flow into his arteries before she whirled around to Garrus and Shepard.

"I have a few moments now for you to explain to me why the HELL I just had to save Lieutenant Alenko's life from talon-shaped wounds to his neck! Were you TRYING to kill him?" They both cowed a bit as if it were their mother screaming at them, and they shook their heads to the negative in unison.

Shepard was the first to speak up. "No, it's his own damn fault that he got hurt that badly. If he hadn't used a heavy biotic push on me and shoved me back, we would've been able to heal him easily with medi-gel alone. It started off with simple puncture marks, nowhere near his fucking jugular." She ended with a snarl in her voice.

Chakwas' face exclaimed her shock almost as well as her voice, which raised a few octaves, "YOU did this, Taren? Are you insane? Have you completely _lost_it?"

Shepard held her bloodied hand up, "No, doc, please listen. He got in between me and Garrus. Tried to push his... 'intentions' on me, while paralyzing me with a fucking stasis field. You KNOW what that kind of act means to turians. We're a BONDED pair. He had no right. You know what turian practices on that sort of situation are. I _was_going easy on him."

Chakwas' face went from pure shock to horrified revulsion as Shepard spoke. "Oh. OH. Oh my. I suppose that explains his face." She went silent, contemplating the implications of this discovery.

Garrus interrupted the short silence, "He's lucky Taren was there. I was going to kill him. She stopped me. And she managed to get me to help carry his traitorous ass in here to keep him from bleeding out in our quarters."

Chakwas nodded, not even looking at him. Instead, she looked at Shepard and sighed heavily. "Well, if he pushed you while you had a grip on his neck, then I am forced to agree, it was his fault. You were well within your rights as a member of a bonded pair to mark him for his crime, according to turian law. Being that this is no longer an alliance vessel, there's not a lot they can do in this case. The council would side with you as being within your legal rights, even if you weren't a Spectre, thus being above the law in the first place."

She turned and looked at Kaidan with a grimace. "If Kaidan wasn't court-martialed for not only trying to rape a commanding officer, but assaulting her with biotics, he would be forced to serve where there are only humans present, due to his marks; which I know I'm not allowed to stitch up, thanks to their nature. With your permission, I would like to apply medi-gel to at least heal it so it's no longer bleeding. The scar will remain quite visible, of course."

Shepard and Garrus both growled for a moment at the thought of any assistance being rendered that wasn't necessary to prevent his death, but Shepard nodded curtly, once, and both growls were silenced. "Just don't let him get his face back properly, doc. Only give him enough to let it look like it's been healed for a few minutes, no more. He deserves to look like the bastard traitor he is."

Chakwas nodded and turned to her patient, applying a thin smearing of medi-gel to the five long slits on his face. She paused her ministrations, and looked back at Shepard. "Taren, there are five lacerations. I hate to state the obvious, but turians only have three fingers."

Shepard smacked her plates with her hand. "Shit. FUCK. Fine, seal up the ones from my middle and pinky fingers as cleanly as you can, I want to make sure there's no confusion. Fuck my luck. You know, most of the time I really HATE being a fucking hybrid."

She paused, as she seemed to remember something. "Oh, doc, speaking of which, I need my allergy treatment so I can eat. I'm fucking starving after all this shit, and nothing that won't kill me smells like anything but puke." She retched a little at the thought, and shook her head to try to make the feeling go away.

Chakwas nodded once as she tended to the repair of the two gashes in Kaidan's face. "You know where it is, Garrus can administer it, just tell him what to do."

Shepard nodded, even though the Doctor didn't see it. "Thanks doc. Come Vima, I'll show you what needs to be done." She walked to a cabinet on the back wall of the medbay, opened it, and grabbed a vial of orange fluid, then opened the drawer that contained the injectors, grabbed one, and stabbed the vial into the receptacle. She handed it to Garrus, then leaned over the counter and pulled her pants down enough to expose one ass cheek. She swabbed a dab of medi-gel on the area to sanitize it. "Stab it into the meat right here," she pointed to the correct spot, "And pull the trigger. Once it's empty, pull it out and hand it to me." She laughed darkly. "Spirits that sounded dirty." She looked back at Garrus, and they both chuckled together.

He took aim, stabbed the needle into the meat where she'd indicated, and pulled the trigger on the injector, watching the orange fluid seep quickly out of the vial. When it was all gone, he pulled it out and let her stand and pull her pants up before he handed it to her. She disposed of the tube and needle promptly, placing the injector back in the drawer.

"There, all done. In twenty minutes, I can eat whatever doesn't smell like puke. Finally." She huffed a sigh of relief and smiled at Garrus.

She glanced over at Chakwas and spoke in her direction, "Thanks doc. And please do make sure that the three marks he's supposed to have look as rough as possible. Wouldn't want him waking up as a pretty boy human again, that would be a complete tragedy. Seeya later doc. Don't wake him up until those scars set in nice and pretty."

Chakwas nodded, "Bye for now, Taren. Come by later if you feel like drinking, I have a feeling I'll need it by the end of the day."

Shepard grinned. "I might take you up on that, doc." She walked towards the medbay doors with Garrus hot on her heels. As she raised her hand to palm the interface panel, she held her hand up for both of them to see. "I think maybe we need a shower to wash all of the traitor's blood off of us. What do you think, Vima?" She grinned at him and winked, biting her lip before snapping at his jaw teasingly. The pleased rumble that poured out of his chest was all the reply she needed as she palmed the interface and they both headed towards the showers. They had two hours before they hit Virmire, and they weren't going to waste it.

**A/N: So, did you survive the chapter? I hope so, because there's more coming! Not sure exactly when, but SOON! I spewed out two chapters today, one for my requested femshep/Kolyat AU, and this one, so I've been pretty fucking productive! Yay for me! Hope at least SOME of you enjoyed the chapter. I know it was a little dark in some places, but I needed to get some frustrations out. So, sorry if you didn't like it, but I DID WARN YOU. Can't say I didn't. :D**

**Until next time, PEACE!**


	13. Chapter 13

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 13

**A/N: In which Kaidan wakes up to the reality that he's now **_**totally**_** fucked.**

First, there was darkness. He floated in it, crawled through it, lost, unable to find anything to grab onto. He screamed, but never heard a sound. He clutched at his throat, and felt something wet. Since he couldn't see anything, be brought his hand to his nose, trying to smell the fluid. It smelled coppery, like human blood. He swallowed tightly, and stuck his tongue out, tasting the damp, sticky substance tentatively. It _was_ blood.

Horrified, he searched his memory, trying to understand why there was blood on his neck. He couldn't remember anything before the darkness. He started to feel more of himself, touching his face, finding deep gashes there that had never existed before, feeling the tender skin on the sides of his neck, running his hands down his chest to find more blood. Was this death? Was this what the afterlife felt like? Alone, dark, unforgiving.

His heart began to race, the fingers of panic and fear inching their way up his spine, and he ran his own fingers through his hair, trying to make sense of it all. Suddenly, thoughts came to him, flashes of memory he wasn't sure were his own, and he saw a light somewhere to his left. He started scrambling towards it, hoping beyond hope that it held his salvation from this pit of blackness. More memories began to claw their ways to the surface, flashing before his eyes as if he were currently experiencing them, knocking him back down to his hands and knees with the power of them.

He saw a strange looking male, all frightening angles and sharp edges, screaming at him. The male was replaced with a woman that abruptly made his heart ache with passion, then fear as the look on her face spelled his end. She was the harbinger of death, it seemed, but he couldn't fight her, he loved her. He wondered who she was, his memory couldn't keep up with the brutally quickening impact of these flashes. Her hand enclosed his neck, and he felt sharp, piercing pain on the sides of his neck as her impossibly sharp fingernails dug into his flesh. She spoke for a moment, then raised her hand as if to strike him. He saw a blue flash coming from him, of all places, pushing her back slightly as agony ripped through his neck, quickly followed by shock.

She charged him, her hand finally raking down his face as she'd intended, the slashing pain he felt as she did so eclipsed by the panic he felt as he clutched his neck, which was bleeding profusely. Her eyes widened with sudden realization, and she snapped an order back at the sharp male just before everything went dark.

He reached the light and awoke, gasping for air. He opened his eyes, but everything was distorted, blindingly bright, and he reached out for the figure that was quickly approaching him. He heard a voice through the cloth that seemed to be blocking his ears. It sounded soothing, calming, but he couldn't make out the words.

His memory slowly began to return to him, his groggy state dulling the clarity of his thoughts. He was Kaidan Alenko, and he was now laying on a bed in the Normandy's medbay, looking into the fuzzy, gray-framed face of Doctor Chakwas. She spoke again, and her words started to come into focus.

"...enko, you're in the medbay. How do you feel?" She asked, concern etched in her voice, though her eyes conveyed annoyance, which in itself was unusual.

Kaidan blinked hard, and shook his head as he tried to clear away the last remnants of fog from his thoughts. He immediately regretted the action, as he felt a sharp, tugging ache from the sides of his neck, and gimaced.

"I...in a bit of pain, doc." He managed, his words still slightly slurred from what he could only assume was anesthetic.

She nodded solemnly, sighing as her features relaxed from concern, then tightened again as she let the annoyance in her eyes overtake the rest of her face. She regarded him with a piercing, measuring look as she spoke. "How much do you remember about before you came in here, Alenko?"

His face scrunched in concentration, the events of what happened in the darkness playing out behind his eyes as he gazed at the Doctor. "I'm... not sure. I think I was talking to Shepard, but then something went wrong. Garrus came in and attacked me, then Shepard attacked me, I threw a push at her to defend myself, and after that it all gets fuzzy. I think I blacked out."

Chakwas humphed, shaking her head at him. "Since you can't seem to remember the encounter very well, I'll fill in the blanks for you. According to Shepard and Garrus' account, you forced yourself on her, and she stopped Garrus from taking your life in retaliation, thus protecting his bondmate. Shepard marked you in the traditional turian method of marking a betrayer, a traitor. The reason you blacked out was because of blood loss, since you pushed her back when she had her talons in your neck. As she had a very good grip on you, when she was pushed back, her talons sliced your jugular. It was an accident that you caused. She marked you just before you blacked out, then ordered Garrus to help her carry you in here, and in doing so, saved your life. You're lucky she did that much. I doubt I would have been so generous in her place."

The shock on his face was almost comical. "She marked me? Marked me how? And talons? And why would turian tradition matter? What the hell is going on here?" His voice rose an octave at each question.

Chakwas' eyes were cold as steel as she regarded him as if he were a small, stupid child. "You've never noticed that Shepard is a bit unusual for a human? All the time you've spent pining after her, and you've never seen the slightly sharper than average angles, the sharper teeth, the more pointed nails, almost like talons? One would think, as much as you followed her around like a lost puppy, you'd have noticed it all, and found it a bit too alien to be completely human. Since most of the crew seems to know already, I don't think she'll mind me telling you, especially seeing what's happened between you and her. She's a quarter turian, Kaidan."

His face ran the gambit from confusion, to realization, to horrified shock as she spoke. His mouth snapped open and closed a few times as he blinked furiously, before he finally spoke in a screeching shout. "WHAT?!"

Chakwas winced as the high tones of his exclamation pierced her ears. "I think you heard me perfectly fine, Kaidan. She's a hybrid. And her and Garrus are a bonded pair. Under turian law, that makes what you did incredibly reprehensible. She marked you for your actions. You're lucky that's all she did; if you had been on Palaven and tried that, it would have been far, far worse. Turians are not a very forgiving race when it comes to time-honored traditions being spat upon like that. If it had been up to Garrus, you'd be dead, and we wouldn't be having this conversation."

He looked around in confusion, trying to put order to his thoughts, which had been thrown to the winds of chaos like so much dust. How had he not realized that she was so different? And what had he done that deserved such treatment? "I don't understand why what I did would deserve being... marked, as you put it. All I did was tell her I loved her, and I kissed her. And how did she mark me? Where?"

She shook her head and gave him a stern look as she turned to walk to her desk. She retrieved a mirror, and came back to stand next to his bed. She handed him the mirror as she spoke. "You tried to come between a pair of bonded turian mates, Kaidan; regardless of how innocent your actions may seem to you, they were not to them. She marked you the way her and Garrus' traditions demanded."

He took the mirror from her, and took a deep breath before he looked into it. His eyes widened as his mouth opened in horror when he saw his face. Three long, angry, red, fresh scars marred his once handsome features. His voice was small as he spoke in his shock, almost a whisper. "No...No, no, no. This can't be happening."

Chakwas' eyebrow raised incredulously as she regarded him bemoaning the loss of his looks. "I don't think your looks will be at the top of your worries soon, Kaidan. I'm not sure you realize what that mark signifies. Any species besides perhaps humans that see you from this point forth will know what you've done. Any turian that sees you will be within their rights to perform any act upon you, so long as it does not end in your death. Whatever your dreams or ambitions may have once been outside of the Sol system, they are no longer available to you. Your only option to remain further unscathed by this, is to work within Alliance-controlled territory. That is, if they don't court-martial you for breaking fraternization regs, and attacking a superior officer. The only hope you have outside of Sol, is if Shepard decides to use her status as a Spectre to keep you on this ship, but I doubt that will happen."

The mirror in his hand fell to the bed with a thump, as he stared ahead of him blankly. Chakwas retrieved the mirror, walked to her desk, and sat down as she replaced it on her desk, leaving him to his thoughts. She shook her head in dismay, picking up a datapad to continue the supply inventory she'd been working on before Kaidan had woken.

~o0o0o0o0o0oo0o~

"FUCK! That colossus is doing a number on our shields!" Shepard growled, as she spun the Mako behind an outcropping of stone to let its shields slowly regenerate. She huffed as she sat back in her chair, and looked around to see Garrus sulking a bit that he didn't have a shot from their current position. She chuckled and shook her head at his impatience, then looked back to see Liara in the back seat, swallowing around the lump in her throat. She normally wouldn't have brought the young asari on a mission, but she'd insisted she was ready, and after a short demonstration in the cargo bay of her increased biotic prowess, Shepard had grudgingly admitted that they could use her, with the traitor Alenko out of commission. For now, she was just happy that the asari had kept her lunch down after experiencing Shepard's maddening driving.

She looked back around at her console, and noted that the shields were mostly recharged, so she sprung back into action, nearly driving up the side of the stone wall in her excitement, and drove out into the open, ramming the colossus at full speed, toppling it and driving the Mako up its leg in glee. She spun them around as Garrus fired happily at the huge machine, finally managing to take out one of it's legs. When it couldn't stand properly, it flailed about in the shallow water a bit, its head swinging around to them and charging up a bright blue blast of energy to fire at them. Shepard moved the Mako away quickly, avoiding the strong attack just in time, and Garrus fired the main cannon at it's head, making it explode in a spectacularly entertaining and satisfying fashion.

"YEAH! Take THAT, you metal bastard!" Shepard shouted amongst the hoots of victory coming from the other two members of her squad. She laughed heartily and swung the Mako around to continue their trek over the watery world. As much as the landscape was annoyingly filled with geth, it was a beautiful place, full of waterfalls and gorgeous views that stretched on for miles. She thought idly as she drove, knocking over a few smaller geth units and killing them instantly, that she would love to bring Garrus here someday for a nice vacation, once all this mess was sorted out. She couldn't believe this place wasn't already a vacation resort, as beautiful as it was.

Her distracted driving suddenly landed them near a metallic structure that seemed to be blocking their path. She looked out the window and saw some small geth platforms running around on top, and backed the Mako up, letting Garrus shoot the ones that were visible before she drove them close to the stairway that led up to the top, and ordered her team to disembark. She looked at Liara as she climbed out after Garrus, and gave her an appraising once-over. "Ready to prove your worth, T'Soni?"

The young asari nodded, pulling her pistol out quickly and checking it over. "Ready and able, Shepard." She nodded.

Shepard returned the nod, and headed up the stairs, her team in tow. Several geth poured out of the hidden rooms of the small facility. She sent a warp towards the nearest geth, which Liara backed up with a push, and a few decently aimed shots from her pistol. The geth went down, and they began focusing on the remaining four geth platforms. Shepard shot an overload from her omni-tool at the clustered group, watching as they stalled for a moment, tossing a warp here and there, and picking one off quickly with her own pistol, as Garrus landed two solid headshots, leaving only one geth standing.

The last geth was a big one, that Shepard had learned from Tali was called a 'Prime', and it took all three of them to bring it down. When they finally stood over its smoldering, crumbled body, watching as it bled white fluid everywhere, they all heaved a collective sigh of relief. Shepard headed off to the back room, disabling the console there, and returned to join Garrus and Liara, who were examining the Prime corpse with interest.

Liara was the first to speak up, catching Shepard's attention to what her and Garrus had been looking at. "Shepard, look at this. I've never seen this on any of the documentation of geth platforms before. It looks... organic. Why would the geth have organic parts? I thought they prided themselves on being synthetic?"

Shepard knelt down to take a closer look. She leaned forward, trying to figure out exactly what she was seeing. It looked like the geth had a semi-organic heart, of all things. Her eyebrows raised in surprise, she looked at Liara and Garrus, who both had matching looks of confusion spread across their faces. "I have no idea what to make of this." She said, completely puzzled by what both her eyes, and now her omni-tool, were telling her, as she raised it up in scan mode. "I know someone who might have an idea though. I'm sending these scans to our resident quarian. Her people made the geth, perhaps she'll know what's going on here."

She stood and tapped her comm. "Joker, patch me in to Tali'Zorah, I need to have a chat with our little pilgrim."

"[Sure thing, Taren]"

There was a pause as the transfer went through, then the filtered voice of the young quarian piped through. "[What can I do to help, Shepard?]"

"You can tell me why I'm getting the impression that the geth are up to something more than we'd previously thought. I'm sending a scan of one of them to you. You tell me what's off, and I may just have a prize for you."

Another pause, this one much longer, before Tali's voice came back through the comms. "[Keelah, Shepard... this makes no sense. We never gave the geth organic parts, it would've greatly reduced their efficiency and lifespan, not to mention it being highly illegal to do so. I don't know why this geth has an organic heart, of all things. Can you send me scans of other geth in the area? Perhaps this one is not the only one with organic parts?]"

"You win the prize, Tali: a new omni-tool from Spectre requisitions when we're on the citadel next. Scanning now. Also, wouldn't giving geth organic parts be just as illegal as making sentient AI's?" Shepard asked, with a smirk.

A slight scoff could be heard over the comms before Tali replied. "[Of course, Shepard; but making a sentient AI pales in comparison to giving that AI organic parts. It's like cloning a person, and programming a consciousness of your choice into the body, essentially playing god, as Ash would say. Besides, this tech is far beyond what we had at the time. We could never have created a working hybrid unit like this. It wouldn't have lived more than a minute if we'd tried. Even now, I doubt we could produce a working version of this. And thank you for the omni-tool, that is very generous of you.]" Shepard could hear Tali's bashfulness over the comm, and smiled.

Shepard shared a worried look with her ground team as she scanned the other geth in the structure. "No problem, Tali. Sending the data now. It appears that Prime was the only one that had visible organic parts. Maybe a prototype?"

"[Hmm. No, all the scans I'm getting have some small organic parts in them, though the Prime seems to have the most significant one. I don't recognize the species origin of the organic parts either. None of this makes any sense. We need to study this in-depth, Shepard. Is there any way you could bring that unit back to the ship? There's no telling how this could effect the rest of the galaxy, if the geth are trying to emulate organics after all this time.]" Tali's voice betrayed her worried state, and Shepard had to agree that the situation warranted a thorough investigation.

She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her small nose. "I'll see what I can do, Tali. Shepard out." She pinched her comm module and looked down at the huge geth Prime unit at their feet. "Alright guys, let's see if we can get this thing into the Mako. Sorry Liara, but you're riding with the dead geth. There's no room for it anywhere else but in the back seat."

Liara grimaced at that, but helped Garrus and Shepard lift the Prime with her biotics, combining them with Shepard's, and carrying it awkwardly to the Mako. They lifted it into the back seat, and strapped it in, stretching the harness to capacity to secure it. "There," said Shepard, "at least it won't be falling all over you if we make a sharp turn." She looked at Liara, smiling, who looked at Garrus, who looked back ad Shepard.

"You mean _when_ we make a sharp turn, with you driving." He quipped, causing her to punch him in the chest and give him a devilish smirk.

"You're a real jerk sometimes, Vima." She said, as she grinned broadly. She hopped up into the driver's seat of the Mako and waved to her team mates. "Let's get this show on the road!"

**A/N: So yeah. Definitely a twisty turn here for the story. In case you hadn't noticed yet, Virmire is going to be a totally different ball game, as is a lot of the story from here on out. I'm going to be fixing some of the game plot holes, as well as most likely creating my own. This is AU, so the plot bunnies will be running rampant, and breeding like crazy, I assure you. Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter, I will get back to this soon. Until then, Happy Holidays/New Years!**

**Peace!**


	14. Chapter 14

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 14

**A/N: I've gotten several complaints that Kaidan was not being treated fairly. I am going to attempt to put those issues to rest here.**

**Ok, here's the thing. There's no way that Kaidan could've missed that Garrus and Taren were together, before he forced his affections on her. She's been marked, as has Garrus, as a bond mate. In my ME headcannon, which is very much a part of this story, this is a very visible mark, it can't be hidden by clothing. So if Kaidan didn't see the marks on both of them, he's completely blind. And no, I don't mean blinded by love, I mean BLIND. Kaidan isn't ignorant, and didn't make a mistake in this case, he knew what was going on between Garrus and Taren, yet he chose to ignore it, and continue to pursue Taren regardless. **

**Perhaps this was not all made clear enough by Taren's statement, which was in the middle of her speech to Kaidan before she marked him: "You have come between a bonded, mated pair, something that any person of any species should have enough common sense to never attempt, and yet you did. You knew, and you ignored it, saw the marks, and you pursued me still.". **

**if I need to reiterate that Kaidan was being an idiot, then I will. He was well aware of what had happened, he knew that getting in between them was a bad idea, yet he still did it. He is only reaping the consequences of his actions here, nothing more, nothing less. I stopped Garrus from killing him, I had Taren save his live in the end, and, as Chakwas put it: "She marked you just before you blacked out, then ordered Garrus to help her carry you in here, and in doing so, saved your life. You're lucky she did that much. I doubt I would have been so generous in her place."**

**If it is not patently obvious that Kaidan was in the wrong here, and he is getting exactly what he bargained for when he continued on his errant path, I don't know what else to say.**

**So, without further ado, here's chapter 14!**

The constant thrum of the drive core was a balm to her frayed thoughts that she desperately needed. The data Shepard had sent her on the geth was more than troubling; it was disturbing. The thought that these geth would willingly have their synthetic parts replaced by organic components sickened her to her core. The geth prided themselves beyond reason in being a sentient synthetic race, they always had; so why the sudden betrayal of their deepest values? It didn't make any sense. She transferred the data from her omni-tool to the console she'd been provided in engineering for a closer study.

The more she stared at the data, the more it upset her. Who could've changed the minds of the geth so thoroughly that they would abandon their programming, and accept these new parameters as their canon? As she poured over the data, she noted that this Prime had more than just an organic heart. It had muscles strewn about its structure, covered in synthetic polymer, organs hidden by armor that a geth should have no need for. _'Keelah, what is going on here? Are the geth trying to move away from their synthetic roots to become organic, or was this forced on them? This doesn't make any sense!'_ She shook her head and lowered her masked face to her hand, overwhelmed by the implications of this data.

She would have to wait until Shepard returned with the Prime unit to get any more data, but she was terrified of what she might find once it got here. The flotilla would need to be given a full report on this. Her people had never intended this behavior for the geth. Something catastrophic had happened to give these units the idea that becoming organic would be a good idea. And the technology involved to make them stable... it was nothing like anything anyone currently had. The only way this was possible would be if... Her eyes widened as her head flew up in shock. "Keelah! The reapers did this!" She exclaimed to the console. Engineer Adams glanced over at her with a concerned look on his face. She blushed behind her mask. "Sorry... I..." She twisted her hands together in anxiety, then turned sharply back to her console, staring wide-eyed at the data, going over it again with renewed urgency.

_'Those bosh'tets!'_ Her fingers flew over the console, bringing up specific sections of data, delving into the details and examining the tech in depth. "Keelah..." She muttered. She clicked on her comm quickly. "Joker, patch me in to Shepard, I have something she needs to know about."

"[Roger, Tali. Patching her in now]"

A pause later, Shepard's strained voice came through her comm unit. "[I'm a little busy Tali, what's the problem?]"

She quickly cut to the chase. "Shepard, the reapers did this to the geth. I don't know why, but they are the only ones who could possibly have the technology to do this. If the geth are working directly with the reapers, letting themselves be augmented like this, there's no telling what you may run into down there. If you see any more geth with obvious organic parts like this, please send the data to me. That Prime had far more than just an organic heart, I'm reading muscles and organs, nearly a full nervous system under the plating. Whatever is going on here, it's big."

The loud 'BOOM!' from the Mako's main canon came through the comms, and Tali winced as it blasted into her sensitive ears. "[Alright Tali, we'll keep our eyes peeled. Shepard out.]"

Tali clicked off her comm device and turned, leaning against the console as she stared at the wall, deep in thought.

~0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Not one, not two, but THREE colossi. The Mako's shields were all but gone, and they had nowhere close to duck behind. "These fuckers are REALLY getting on my nerves today!" Was all Shepard could manage to growl out as she slammed the Mako into action, ramming full-speed into the nearest colossus, then careening off towards the only cover, nearly thirty meters away. The Mako rocked hard to the left as a bright blue ball of hard-punching energy slammed into the side of the glorified dune-buggy, and she fought to keep it driving straight as her console blared a warning at her that the rear right tire was damaged. They barely escaped another blue blast as she dove the smoking Mako behind an outcropping of rock just large enough to conceal them.

"Thank the Spirits those things don't like to move around much, or we'd be _seriously_ fucked right now. Garrus, repairs, Liara, go with him and keep him covered. I'll work on the shield modulator, we shouldn't be losing our shields this fast, even with three of those fuckers." Her ground team nodded in unison as they scrambled out of the Mako. She sighed and slung her omni-tool on, interfacing with the shield modulator and scrolling through the data readout.

"Ah-HA! I've got your frequency now, fuckers." Her hands flew over the console as she made adjustments, fine-tuning to the proper frequencies as the stress slowly eased out of her body. "Eat through our shields now, you big metal bastards." She muttered with a devilish gleam in her eyes. Nodding at the console as she saw the shields recharging, she unstrapped herself from her seat, and turned to open her door, jumping slightly as she caught the sight of the Prime in the back seat out of the corner of her eye. She chuckled and took a deep breath to calm her now racing heart, then opened the door and hopped out of the Mako.

What Tali had told her was extremely worrying. If the reapers were doing these kinds of sick modifications to synthetics, what were they doing to Saren? Synthetics should be helping synthetics become more... synthetic, right? Not the other way around. It didn't make a bit of sense. She opened the door to the Prime, and brought her omni-tool up, doing an in-depth scan. Tali had been right, this unit was nearly half organic. _'But what's the purpose? Why not upgrade their hardware instead of giving them a downgrade? Or is there some hidden function to these hybrid units? They aren't any stronger than the old ones.'_ She leaned against the inside of the open door as she pondered the strangeness of the whole thing, scouring the data on her omni-tool with a perplexed look on her face.

She saw a flicker of movement from the direction of the Prime, and her head jerked towards it, staring at it as she stood stock still, her hand on her pistol. Nothing. Not even a flicker of activity. _'Getting jumpy with all this weird shit going on.'_ She thought, slowly relaxing and brushing off her jitters. She sighed and closed the door, walking around to the side Garrus and Liara were working on. "How's the repair coming along?" She asked as she stood next to them, surveying Garrus' work.

Garrus looked up as she spoke, and smiled tensely. "Almost done. We're lucky we found cover when we did, this wheel was about to give out. One more shot, and I would be replacing the whole thing."

"Glad to hear my mad driving skills saved a wheel." Shepard said, grinning cockily.

Garrus and Liara groaned in unison, but couldn't argue. Much.

"There, done. Get the shields modulated properly?" Garrus asked, smirking at Shepard.

"Yes, I did, shouldn't have too much of a problem from here on out. Let's move out, I've got some more mad driving skills to show off." She replied, with a glint in her eye that made his stomach twist into a nervous knot of dread.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

He clacked his talons on the arm of his metal chair impatiently, waiting. His mind was filled with thoughts that were not his own, whispers of memories he couldn't lay claim to. He'd lost half of his support to that damnable human and her squad, and he wanted nothing more than to curve his talons around the bitch's heart and rip it out. He could vividly imagine the joy of eating her heart as it tried desperately to keep pumping life's blood into the body it'd been severed from so abruptly, and it filled his cold heart with giddy satisfaction. But it was only imagined, and as he opened his eyes, they fell upon the cold walls of his room within Sovereign, and disappointment flooded his senses.

"Soon, Saren. You will have that which you crave, and more." Whispered a dark, graveling voice directly into his mind.

He shook his head and snarled, talons curling tightly over the edges of his throne. The voice was becoming stronger than he'd like. He didn't need it to tell him Shepard was coming. He'd tried to hide this facility from her, and everyone else. It was too soon, his research hadn't been completed. Yet, here she was, interrupting and slowing him down once more, as she had several times already. She was more than a simple nuisance now; she'd become a worthy enemy.

It was all Sovereign could do to keep him in check, to remind him that she was not the goal. She'd become his obsession, and his need to see her removed from his path was nearly as overwhelming as Sovereign's influence over him.

He tapped the comm button on his chair and growled his command into it. "Report!"

A nervous salarian voice sounded from the other end of the channel. "Genophage cure near completion, geth modifications integrating smoothly, Saren. Need time for cure though, many... complications still."

He roared his frustration and anger at the simpering scientist on the comm line. "Then FIX them. Sovereign will not wait while you dawdle, and neither will I!" He cut off the comm line and rested his chin on his closed fist.

He hadn't anticipated the salarian STG team would arrive and discover his facility. Nor had he anticipated that they would get a message off to the Council, or that Shepard would be the one they'd send to investigate. He stood, and strode out of the room, growling out his frustrations at the geth guards that followed him from outside his door. At least the geth project was well underway; if things continued to go well, he would soon have an army of willingly brainwashed hybrid servants to infiltrate every government and military of every species in the galaxy. The invasion would be seamless.

With the modified krogan to back him up, he would be invincible. Sovereign would let those who followed live, and harvest those that did not. It was the perfect plan.

~o0o0o0o0o0o~

Shepard slammed on the brakes as she neared the encampment ahead of her. "These must be the salarians the Council told us about. Let's go say hi!" She said with a gleeful grin, as she unbuckled her harness and slung herself out of the open door of the Mako, landing in shin-deep water. Two more splashes sounded behind her as she slammed the door shut, and began sloshing her way towards the camp.

As she reached the shore, she was greeted by a salarian wearing full armor, his helmet concealing his features. He pressed a button on the edge of his helmet, and his visor slid out of view. "Spectre Shepard. Good to see Council sent someone. Will inform Captain Kirrahe of your arrival." He nodded, pressed the button again, and turned towards one of the tents set up all along the shoreline, tottering anxiously towards it in typical salarian fashion.

She raised an eyebrow at the retreating alien, then turned back to her ground team. "Well. Friendly fellow. So, any wagers on what we'll find further on? There's gotta be a story behind all this geth modification business."

Garrus shook his head. "Sorry Vima, I don't think I could predict what's ahead if I tried. This whole day has been one surprise after another."

Liara nodded in agreement. "Yes, he's right. None of this feels right. I'm not sure wagers would be appropriate at this juncture."

Shepard rolled her eyes. "Wow, you guys need to loosen up. Don't get me wrong, I agree with you on the weird factor, but there's nothing wrong with an innocent bet."

A surprisingly strong salarian voice came from behind her. "There are no innocent bets to be had in this place, Spectre Shepard." He extended his hand cautiously, as if unsure of the gesture. As she took it without hesitation, he relaxed minutely. "Captain Kirrahe, salarian Special Tasks Group, or STG for the sake of brevity. I take it the Council got our message? Where are the rest of the troops?"

Shepard glanced back at Garrus and Liara with a confused expression on her face, only to find her own confusion mirrored in their faces. She replied as she turned back to face Kirrahe. "Um, there aren't any troops. The Council didn't get a message from you, just static on the line used for covert communications. They sent me to investigate."

Kirrahe's jaw dropped. "So, you're _it_? You're _all_ the Council sent? Spectre, this is _not_ a time for jokes, if this is one. Investigation is a repetition of our task, we were sent here to investigate in the first place. I lost half my men 'investigating' this facility, now where is the platoon we asked for?"

Shepard growled as she responded. "Captain, as I said, neither the Council nor I had any idea what was going on here. I do have more team members I can bring down, if more people are needed. Why don't you fill me in on the situation before this gets out of hand?" The threat, though veiled, was clearly sent. She nodded at Garrus, who called Joker on the comms, directing him to land the Normandy near their location.

Kirrahe hesitated for a moment, but conceded. "Very well, Spectre Shepard."

She interrupted him there. "Look, I respect that you're using my title, but for brevity's sake, just call me Shepard, and let's get on with this." She turned slightly as the Normandy sat down behind them, displacing the water below it, and sending a few shallow waves of water splashing against their feet. The rest of the ground team members disembarked, fully armored and armed, and headed over to them. Kaidan was not among them.

Kirrahe didn't bother disguising the annoyance on his face, and sighed quietly, then nodded. "Very well, Shepard." He narrowed his eyes at her slightly. "This is Saren's main base of operations. He is conducting research into the genophage, and performing modifications on the geth that are... beyond disturbing."

Shepard nodded at him. "Yeah, we've met a few of them already, in fact there's a modified Prime unit sitting in the back of the Mako that we were bringing back for more in-depth study. Why is Saren researching the genophage? What the hell is he up to? None of this makes any damn sense"

Kirrahe's face contorted into shock once more. "You captured one of them? How? Every unit we tried to take in for study self-destructed within minutes!"

She raised a brow at him. "Really? Well, this one's intact. Well, mostly anyway. We did shoot a lot of holes in it. It's pretty heavily modified, maybe that has something to do with it. Any idea why they're being modified like this? It doesn't make any sense to us, maybe you found something to help figure all this out?"

He shook his head. "Sadly no. Not in relation to the geth issue, at least. Saren's research into the genophage cure appears to be mostly complete, though the krogans he plans to use it on seem to be completely brainwashed. No will of their own. They are just pawns to him. The cure is missing a final component that won't take much longer for his scientists to work out, at least according to the data we retrieved. There is no way we can let news of this cure escape this facility. It must be destroyed."

That was the moment Wrex decided to barge his way into the conversation. "Destroyed? You can't be serious. The krogans have more than paid for our rebellion, salarian. You neutered us, and you expect me to just sit back while you destroy the only glimmer of hope that my people have had in over a thousand years? If that's what you think, you've got something else coming!" He reared back, preparing to punch Kirrahe, but Shepard was too quick.

"WREX! STAND DOWN!" She growled in his face, her fingers curling around his raised fist, her talons digging into the rough hide on his hands. His eyes burned bloodlust back at her, the threat of violence if she didn't back off clear in his stance. She stood her ground, snarling her own brand of anger at him, announcing a clear threat of her own. She growled at him through clenched teeth. "Back off, Wrex, we'll discuss this in a moment."

His eyes flickered to the salarian behind her, narrowing, then lowering in defeat. He relaxed his stance, and she released his fist, nodding towards a part of the beach that was removed from the main encampment. He nodded tersely, and tromped off in the direction she'd indicated.

Kirrahe huffed out a sigh of relief, eying Shepard sharply as she turned back to him. "Is he going to be a problem? We've got enough issues to deal with here, Shepard. Keep your krogan pet on a leash, or I won't hesitate to put him down myself."

Her eyes narrowed to slits of icy blue and black as she charged up to Kirrahe's face, a taloned finger poking between the plates of his armor on his chest viciously. "_You_ leave him out of this. I'll handle my own crew. Keep yours away from him, I wouldn't want any... _accidents_."

Kirrahe stood his ground admirably, though he did wince when Shepard's talon pierced his fragile skin. "Be sure you do handle him, Shepard. We don't need any distractions on this mission. We've got few enough people to finish it as it is." he stepped back out of her immediate reach, giving a terse nod to her, then turned to walk back to his tent.

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. She turned to Garrus. "Let me go talk to Wrex. Fucking hell, Vima; this was the last thing we needed." He laid a hand on her shoulder in solidarity, trilling reassurance and encouragement to her. She flexed her throat, trilling gratitude back to him, then a hint of anxiety as she headed off to face Wrex.

~o0o0o0o0o0o~

Garrus watched her go worriedly. He knew Wrex was loyal to her, but would it be enough? He watched the encounter closely from his position, checking for signs of aggression on Wrex's part, just to be safe. When he saw both of their weapons raised at each other, he raised his Widow, squaring off on Wrex's crest. He could see Shepard's face just at the edge of his scope, but he had a clear shot from this angle. He saw her eyes flicker to him, widen, and she shook her head minutely. He trilled loudly in the affirmative, knowing she would hear it. He heard her negative reply as her eyes returned to Wrex's gaze. He growled in frustration, but lowered his gun, stowing it angrily. He paced the beach as he watched them keenly, his fringe flaring in agitation. He wanted to protect his mate, but she wasn't letting him.

He paused his pacing as he saw first Wrex, then Shepard lower their guns. Wrex brushed past her and stood on the shoreline, shooting into the water and kicking the sand into the air like an angry child, but he looked mostly mollified now. His anger wasn't directed at Shepard, at least. He saw Shepard's shoulders rise and fall in a heavy sigh, then watched her walk back to him, both trilling relief as she neared.

"That was a close one." She said as she stood in front of him. He wanted to wrap his arms around her, to touch her, make sure she was safe, but this wasn't the place. He opted for clasping his hand around her shoulder and trilling soothing, grateful tones instead. He saw some of the stress fall away from her face as she gave him a small smile. "Thanks, Vima." She murmured, then sighed, facing towards Kirrahe's tent.

He followed her in, and listened as they discussed the salarian's plan of attack. Both of their jaws fell as they heard Kirrahe's idea of planting a bomb. He spoke up before Shepard had a chance to. "Isn't a bomb a little extreme, Captain? It would ruin the environment of this world for centuries, not to mention being complete overkill. It's only a medium-sized facility. I would say that smaller charges, placed throughout the facility, with a remote detonator would do the job far more efficiently, and leave the rest of the planet untouched." He heard Shepard trilling gratitude once again, as they both waited for the salarian Captain to ponder this option.

"Do you have the materials for this? We didn't exactly bring along explosives like that on a recon mission." Kirrahe finally asked.

The shared sigh of relief from both Shepard and Garrus lifted the tension in the tent dramatically. Shepard answered first this time. "Yes, we have the needed ordinance, we just need the places to plant the charges, and we're set. We can still use the rest of your plan though. A diversion team will be a useful asset to the success of the mission, and we can slip in the back with relative ease."

Kirrahe nodded. "Yes, this may just work. I'm short on men, Shepard; I'll need someone from your team to lead the third diversion unit." He was testing her resolve. Would she actually dedicate one of her own to the success of this mission?

Shepard's jaw set tightly as she eyed the salarian Captain up for a moment. Her eyes shifted to a point behind him as she thought, returning to his gaze as she came to a decision. "Very well, Captain. Take Ashley Williams. She will lead your third unit effectively." She turned to catch Ash's gaze outside of the tent. "Ash!" she shouted, grabbing her attention and waving her into the tent.

"Yes Skipper?"

"I'm putting you under the temporary command of Captain Kirrahe, you are to lead the third diversion team since he's short on men. Follow his orders until we come get you guys. The rest of us are going to be busy planting charges all over this damn base, and blowing it to hell once we're all clear." She nodded to Ash and smiled. "Good luck, Chief."

Ash saluted and managed a smile. "Good luck yourself, Skipper."

**A/N: And this is my New Year's gift to all of you, my wonderful readers. Hope you enjoyed, and look out for more chapters coming soon!**

**Peace!**


	15. Chapter 15

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 15

**A/N: I am so, so, SO flipping excited for this chapter to FINALLY BE HERE!**

**LOTS of plot twists and crazy shit about to happen. This is where the story diverts WILDLY from the canon story, and completely changes the dynamics of the galaxy. This is no longer just AU people. This... Is a re-write. BOOYAH! I just flipped your world upside-down. Get ready for a wild ride, cause it's only gonna get more strange from here on out! Some in-game events will still happen, but I'm gonna change things up quite a bit from here on out.**

**Also, I MUST mention this. When You're Strange is now coming out as a COMIC! WOOOOOOT! So yeah, look up DragonoftheDark on Deviant Art, and find the first page in her gallery!  
**

**And now, for Kirrahe's epic speech. :D (and not just a little bit of epicness from Shepard herself! :D)**

* * *

"Alright people, listen up!"

Shepard's remaining ground team were gathered around her outside of Captain Kirrahe's tent, looking at her expectantly.

"Kirrahe's going to lead a direct assault on the base. Ash is going with him. The rest of us are going to go around the back and plant explosive charges all around this facility, grab what information we can, pick up the distraction team, and blow this place sky high. Hopefully that'll take care of Saren while we're at it. He's caused enough trouble, I don't want to give him the chance to create more." She paused to look at her team mates. "You've all shown remarkable skill so far, and I intend to see this through. It's time we took the fight to Saren. Let's show him what we're made of." She let off a wicked grin, and turned to speak to Kirrahe.

"Captain, we're ready when you are. My team's been briefed and we're loaded up."

He nodded. "Very well Commander. Give me a moment to speak to my men, and we'll head out after."

Shepard gave a curt nod, and backed into the small grouping of her teammates to wait.

Kirrahe turned to his men, who were now standing in a line at attention, watching him carefully. He took a deep breath, and began. "You all know the mission, and what is at stake. I have come to trust each of you with my life. But I've also heard murmurs of discontent. I share your concerns. We are trained for espionage. We would be legends, but the records are sealed. Glory in battle is not our way." He turned to pace down the line of his men.

"Think of our heroes! The Silent Step, who defeated a nation with a single shot. Or the Ever Alert, who kept _armies_ at bay with hidden facts." He paused to look at one of his men. "These giants do not seem to give us solace here, but they are not all that we are!" He continued his walk down the line. "Before the network, there was the fleet. Before diplomacy, there were _soldiers_." He snapped his narrowed eyes to one of his men as he spoke. "Our influence stopped the rachni, but before that, we held the line. Our influence stopped the krogan, but before that, we held the line! Our influence _will_ stop Saren today; in the battle, we _will_ hold the line!"

Kirrahe turned demurely to Shepard, and it took all her willpower to keep from clapping loudly at the Captain's rousing speech. Instead, she settled for a respectful nod and an encouraging smile. "Great speech, Captain. Good luck out there."

He gave her the tiniest hint of a sly smirk, returning her nod. "You too, Shepard. I look forward to our joint report to the council when we're done here."

Shepard turned to her team, drawing and checking her pistol before glancing around at the faces of her teammates. "Alright people, locations for explosives are highlighted on your omni-maps, we clear and plant, look for anything we can use, then move on. We need to move fast to give Kirrahe's group a shot at survival. We lose them, we get swarmed. That can't happen. So let's get our asses in gear and do this. Clear?"

Liara spoke up through the chorus of 'Aye, Shepard's with a look of concern. "What about hostages?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it Liara. I doubt there's anyone in there that's not indoctrinated, aside from the geth. And I'm beginning to wonder about that, too." She bit her lip as her brows knitted together in thought. "But that's neither here nor there until we get some solid intel on it. Let's get this done and give Saren a run for his money! Move out!"

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

It felt good to be off the ship for the first time since Feros. She wished she could take her mask off for once, just to feel what her suit told her was a warm, balmy breeze on her face. She shook her head, clearing it of such frivolities. She needed to focus on the mission. The information hidden in the walls of this facility would be an invaluable pilgrimage gift for the entire fleet, let alone the Neema, which she hoped to be assigned to once she returned. A gift like this would earn her a posting on any ship she wanted. She brought her shotgun to bear, and readied the combat protocols on her omni-tool as she followed closely behind Shepard, listening keenly for enemy sightings over the comm chatter.

The salarian group chimed in with a comms check, telling Shepard's 'shadow team' that they were making the first push forward. She heard Shepard acknowledge, then watched as she waved Wrex up to her.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Wrex was pissed. Not at Shepard so much, she wasn't the one that suggested destroying the cure in the first place, after all; it was that damn salarian. Slimy pyjak. He was a member of their precious STG, so of course he wanted to destroy the only hope of a cure his people had seen in generations. His people created the damn genophage in the first place. But even if this cure wasn't complete, wasn't it worth at least _trying_ to save the data? Hell, if he could find the damn console that held the information, he could slip it onto his omni-tool before anyone noticed, right? Simple data transfer. Unless it was encrypted. He wasn't a techie by any means, but he'd been around the galaxy a few times as a merc, and he'd picked up a few things in his travels. Things like auto-cracking programs. What he couldn't make happen with know-how, he made up for with resourcefulness. It was the krogan way. Well, that, and violence.

His musings were interrupted by a wave from Shepard, indicating he should join her at the head of the group. As he tromped forward, a slight smirk graced his battle-scarred face. He liked Shepard. Maybe he could convince her to save the data? Would his loyalty to her be enough to cause sympathy for his whole race to bloom in her heart? But he'd aimed his shotgun at her with a desperate threat. He hadn't wanted to shoot her, but she was letting that slimy pyjak of a salarian get away with destroying the only hope for his species. She had to be made to see the error of her ways, and what better way to do that than with the threat of death? Maybe there was another way to convince her?

As he reached her side, she looked at him, and sorrow shone through in her eyes. She sighed before she spoke. "Wrex, you know I hate the idea of just destroying the cure data, right?"

His eyes widened. Was this his way in? Would it really be this simple? He nodded to her, hoping that would be enough of an answer to make her keep talking.

She gave a tight nod in response. "If you see the chance, take it." She must've seen the shock and pure joy warming his face, because she made him pause with her hand on his arm. "But Wrex. Make sure your people are ready first. Make sure that the first thing on their minds isn't revenge, or war. You need to rebuild. I know what happened, but your people need to recover, not wage war. You need to be strong and ready, so that when the reapers come, you're not still stuck in the dark ages. Please believe me when I say I want the cure for your people probably almost as badly as you do, but they need leadership, they need direction. You have your family's armor now. You can go back and be that leadership for them. You have greatness in you Wrex. Don't waste it on petty revenge. Prepare them, guide them. I know you have it in you." She gave him a quick nod and a smile, then turned towards the facility. "Now let's go kick Saren's ass."

Warmth flowed over him in waves, flooding his senses with elation and relief. She'd given him everything he never dreamed could happen, and what's more; she'd given him inspiration, and _hope_. And a lot to think about. He rammed his fists together, and with gusto, nearly shouted: "I'm with you, Shepard!" He cocked his shotgun and fell in step beside her as she grinned and charged forward.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Ash's heart was pounding. This was the most important order she'd ever had to follow, and she was fighting the edges of panic that were slowly trying to creep through her heart. Her whole team died on Eden Prime, and Shepard was sticking her neck out by sending her to command a group of salarians that she didn't know, in a frontal assault of the headquarters of a rogue Spectre. It wasn't that she doubted Shepard's judgment; no, she doubted her own. Her teammates' deaths on Eden Prime hadn't technically been her fault, but survivor's guilt was a bitch and a half.

So far, the salarians Kirrahe had put under her were following her orders without question. What if she had to order one of them to certain death? Or all of them? How could she justify that to Kirrahe, or Shepard? She shook her head quickly and huffed a tight burst of air from her lungs, trying to keep the threads of panic from enclosing her completely in a black haze. The mission. You're the bait. Everyone here is expendable. _'Including me.'_

~o0o0o0o0o0o~

Geth were everywhere.

"Tali! 3 'o clock! Liara, barrier!" Shepard felt the warm buzz of Liara's barrier surround them, giving everyone's shields a few seconds to regenerate. "FUCK this is a hot mess! Tali, how far to the AA tower?"

"Forty meters ahead, Shepard!" Came Tali's quick reply, before she unleashed an overload on a group of nearby geth platforms.

"Shit, alright, Wrex, take point, we need a hole, and I know you can make us one! Garrus, on our six, everyone else give these fuckers all you got! Shields up, let's MOVE people!" Shepard nodded to Wrex, who roared mightily with a cry of battle, charging through a haggle of geth platforms like a hot knife through butter, with Shepard and her team in hot pursuit. They blasted through the geth left standing after Wrex's charge, and ran like the devil towards the AA platform. Two more geth squads, and a lone krogan stood in their way, taunting them with the taste of victory denied momentarily, as they bashed, pushed, and shot their way through like a battering ram of unrelenting violence. The first squad went down with the combined biotic pushes of the three biotics in Shepard's team, and before the platforms could recover, they all had holes of varying sizes in vital organs or circuitry. The next group was brought down by the might of tech overloads and more bullets, as the krogan made to charge Wrex blindly. All guns leveled at the mindless krogan barreling towards them, and he faltered as the shots rang out one by one, the final burst of molten lead delivered by Wrex's shotgun, straight into the krogan's chest, blasting a huge hole through him that even the vaunted krogan regeneration wouldn't be able to heal.

Finally, they reached the AA platform. The few platforms defending it were easily dispatched, and Shepard ran to the console quickly, inputting the shutdown command before falling back against a nearby wall to catch her breath. The others in her team followed suit to varying degrees. "Alright," She said between breaths, "great push. Biotics, eat up, the rest of you catch your breaths. I'll get our next target." She tossed one energy bar to Liara, two to Wrex, and split one open for herself as she turned her comm output channel to Kirrahe's team. She snarfed down the bar without any finesse whatsoever, and swallowed just before she spoke up. "Shadow took down the AA guns, what's our next target?"

A loud snarl of static roared over the channel, before clearing just enough to hear Kirrahe's response: "[Need to destroy... geth's comm tower, it's disrupting comm...cations! Please... rry shadow!]"

"Roger that, shadow team out." She swapped her comm output to her team before speaking again. "Alright people, you heard the man. Tali, aim the spear and let us fly!"

They hurried back down to the ground as Tali checked her omni-map. "Sixty meters east, Shepard. And oddly, not many enemy signatures. We must've already met the bulk of the rear guard defense."

Shepard nodded, smiling at the young quarian. "Good work, Tali. Let's head out."

As Tali predicted, they met surprisingly little resistance, which amounted to a few rocket troopers and one Prime unit. Hardly a challenge, considering what they'd already faced. As they came up on the comm tower, a single geth unit greeted them. They greeted it back with a face full of molten lead. When they found no console for easy deactivation of the comm tower, Shepard ran back down the ramp, and took aim at the dishes on top of the tower. Garrus and Liara joined her quickly, and the dishes soon gave way to their assault with a small – if satisfying – explosion.

Shepard's request for a new target was met with a response of targeting the main facility. She gave confirmation and switched channels once more. "Alright, let's lock 'n load. Time to take these bastards out!"

~o0o0o0o0o0o~

"RAAAAGH! I will tear her heart out!"

Rana cringed as her fingers gripped the edge of her desk in fear. Saren had become increasingly agitated the longer the assault on the facility went on. She had no idea who he was talking to, since she was never allowed into his office, and she'd never seen anyone else come out of it, but the fact that she could hear him that clearly from her location made it obvious that he was fit to explode at any moment. This job was already dangerous enough without a rampaging turian to add to the long list of dangers. She heard the lift to Saren's office activate, and went completely still as she waited.

Saren paused as the lift door opened, scenting the air. He zeroed in on the neurospecialist, and glared at her with contempt. He scoffed at the rank stench of fear radiating off of her, and strode towards her, leaning over so that there was only an inch between his mouth and her ear canal. "Do you feel it tickling the base of your skull, Rana? Do you feel the caress of it on your spine? Do you hear the whispers? If you don't, you soon will." She whimpered and shied away from him in her chair, but he followed her, trailing a talon down the back of her neck slowly as he spoke.

"You will feel its cold fingers grasping your heart, and you will embrace the chill, just before it rips your fearful heart out. But even then, it won't let you go. Even as you die, it will reshape you, mold you for its purpose, turn you into its pawn. You will be helpless to resist, even as you destroy those who were once closest to you. It will become your lover, your mate, and you will want nothing more than the next whisper, the next caress. Your fate is already sealed, you just don't realize it yet. Just like your first test subject. Did you know she once sat in this very chair? She was your predecessor, Rana. No matter how much you try to fight it, it will win. Remember my words, Rana, they will soon be your only comfort." He snarled and snapped his teeth at her, before backing off as quickly as he'd advanced, and striding out of the room.

The moment he was out of sight, she sank off of the chair she had been precariously perched upon, down to the floor beneath her desk, where she shivered violently and sobbed in fear. She held her hands out before her, and they shook uncontrollably. She let her face fall into what little solace her trembling hands had to give, and cried her panic into them silently, afraid to make a sound beyond the inevitable hitching of air in her throat.

The soft whisper of her long-dead mother's voice echoed soothingly in her mind. "There there, child. Calm yourself. There is no need to fear. Embrace your destiny. You are one of us now." She blinked, and raised her head.

Why was she under a desk? She heard the lift coming up, and tried to remember what had happened in the last few minutes. She slowly recognized that she was under her own desk, and she felt something wet on her face. She touched the wetness, and was relieved to find it was only tears. She wiped them away, unsure of why she'd been crying. Her mother's voice had soothed her, she was safe. She heard new voices coming from the elevator.

"Alright, all the charges are set, we've got one more to go and we're done. Wrex, Tali, did you get what you needed?" An authoritative female voice.

"Yes, Shepard." A young female voice.

"Got it, Shepard!" A harsh male voice.

The authoritative female continued. "Perfect. Let's plant this last charge and blow this place to hell. Hopefully we'll take Saren out with it."

Saren? But he's one of us. We must warn him. The elevator doors opened, and she heard the stomping of several pairs of boots entering the room. She crawled out from under the desk boldly. She had a mission.

She raised her hands in a sign of peace, proving she was unarmed. Not dangerous. "Don't shoot! Please, I just wanna get out of here before it's too late!"

The authoritative female sunk into her hip, crossing her arms over her chest, regarding her with narrowed eyes. "Alright, let's hear it; who are you, and what the fuck do you want?"

She moved closer to the authoritative female, lowering her hands to her side. "Rana Thanoptis, Neurospecialist. But this job isn't worth dying over, or worse. You think the indoctrination only affects test subjects? Sooner or later, Saren will want to dissect my brain, too."

The authoritative female looked at those who followed her with surprise, and confusion. Their faces echoed hers. "First he's trying to cure the genophage and breed an army of mindless krogan, then he's trying to make organic geth infiltration units to implant at the heart of all our governments, now he's actually _studying_ the effects of indoctrination? As if he doesn't already know the effects?" She scoffed, then focused on Rana, narrowing her eyes once more. "Spill it. What do you know?"

"Saren's studying the effects of that ship, Sovereign. It emits a signal... Impossible to detect, but it's there. Spend too much time around it, and it brainwashes you into becoming its willing slave. The effects are subtle, most wouldn't notice them at first – a tingling at the back of your skull, flashes of memory that aren't yours, whispers of voices telling you what to do. The effects strengthen and amplify the more time you spend near the ship. Saren is researching it to try to protect himself from the effects, and to see what it does to various species. I've got to get out of here before it starts affecting me too, like it did my predecessor! Look, I can help you, I can open up Saren's private office. All his files, his research, everything he knows, you can have access to, just let me get out of here. I heard what you said on the elevator, you're going to blow this place up, right? I've given you all I know, everything I've been told. Are we good now? Can I go?" She fidgeted impatiently, hoping the ruse would succeed.

The authoritative female gave Rana a calculating look for a few moments, then shrugged. "Whatever. You'd better run for it though, and I'd better not see you again working for someone this morally repugnant."

Rana flashed a quick smile at the group, then ran around them quickly, nearly diving into the elevator in haste to get to Saren and warn him. Just before the doors closed, she saw the group heading up to his office.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

After another mind-bending beacon experience, Shepard was waving off hands of assistance when Tali stumbled upon something truly interesting. A red interface hung off the end of a walkway at the top of the room, its big red buttons daring Shepard to poke it. Like a giant 'do not press' button. It must be pressed.

As they neared it, a red holo of the reaper ship Sovereign materialized behind the interface console.

Garrus' steps slowed as it appeared, commenting: "This is not good."

Shepard turned and gave him a look that clearly said 'Ya think?!' before turning back to face the Sovereign holo. It spoke in a deep, gravely voice as she faced it. "You are not Saren."

Again, Garrus piped up. "What is that, some kind of VI interface?"

Before Shepard could react, the holo spoke again. "Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance. Incapable of understanding."

A third time, Garrus interjected: "I don't think this is a VI."

The holo spoke again without delay. "There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own, you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign."

Shepard's eyes widened in realization. "Sovereign isn't just some reaper ship Saren found... It's an actual reaper!"

Sovereign interrupted her train of thought once more. "Reaper. A label created by the protheans, to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what they chose to call us is irrelevant. We simply... Are."

Garrus chimed in this time. "The protheans vanished fifty-thousand years ago. You couldn't have been there, it's impossible."

Sovereign replied: "Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation. An accident. Your lives are measured in years, and decades. You wither, and die. We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We, are the end, of everything."

Since the reaper seemed to be giving a polite pause for once, Shepard spoke up. "Whatever your plan is, it's going to fail. We'll make sure of that."

Sovereign almost sounded annoyed when it responded. "Confidence born of ignorance. The cycle cannot be broken."

Tali piped up for a change of pace. "Cycle? What cycle?"

Sovereign seemed to be enjoying the conversation, or it really liked to hear its own voice, so it answered her. "The pattern that has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilizations rise. Evolve. Advance. And at the apex of their glory, they are extinguished. The protheans were not the first. They did not create the citadel. They did not forge the mass relays. They merely found them; the legacy of my kind."

Something didn't add up here. Shepard was the first to put a voice behind the question. "Why would you construct the mass relays, then leave them for someone else to find?"

Sovereign answered. "Your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays. Our technology. By using it, your society develops along the paths we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist, because we allow it; and you will end, because we demand it.

Tali spoke again, her voice lined with shocked horror: "They're harvesting us! Letting us advance to the level they need, then wiping us out!"

Shepard snapped her next question in a demanding tone. "What do you want from us? Slaves? Resources?"

"My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation; independent, free of all weakness. You cannot even grasp the nature of our existence."

Shepard sighed. "Where did you come from? Who built you?"

Sovereign sounded almost... bored, as it responded. "We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite. Millions of years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotten, we will endure."

Shepard was growing tired of Sovereign's ego. "Where are the rest of the reapers? Are you the last of their kind?" Maybe this would give them information they needed, instead of giving it another chance at proclaiming itself a god.

Sovereign replied. "We are legion. The time of our return is coming. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world. You cannot escape your doom."

_'Oh, great.'_ She thought, _'More of these egotistical bastards.'_ She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. It was like dealing with a child. An angry, god-complex child. "You're not even alive, not really. You're just a machine, and machines can be broken." A sly smirk curved the corner of her mouth as she thought of breaking this _particular_ machine.

That seemed to annoy Sovereign a bit, though it was hard to tell with that mono-tone voice. "Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over."

The Sovereign holo, and its interface console faded, and the windows of the room suddenly shattered inwards. Joker piped in on the comms. "[Taren, I don't know what you did down there, but that reaper ship? It's moving. It just pulled off a maneuver that would shear one of our ships in half. It's comin' your way, and it's comin' fast! I'd get outta there if I were you.]"

Shepard groaned. "Roger that, Joker. We're heading to pick up Ash and Kirrahe's people, meet us over there. Then we're gonna blow this place straight to hell."

"[I'll see you there, Taren. Joker out.]"

She nodded to her team, setting a charge out on the platform before she followed them out of Saren's 'office'. As she joined up with her team, she raised her voice so they could all hear. "Hey did anyone catch that on video? I have a feeling we're gonna need evidence of this shit later. Nobody's gonna believe us without proof that there was an actual reaper here."

Garrus tapped his visor. "This isn't just for counting kills, Vima. I record all missions on it so there's a record. It also has a sensor to collect a holo of the area around me. If you need, I can give a three dimensional recorded review of every mission I've had with you. The recordings are also tamper-proof: if someone tries to alter it other than just making a copy, the data will auto-restore to its original state. Standard C-Sec issue. Should be irrefutable proof enough, even for the council."

She grinned at him and ribbed him with her elbow. "I knew I loved you for a reason."

He flicked his mandible in a smirk. "I thought it was my excellent sense of style and my beautiful voice."

She pretended to ponder that for a moment while Wrex made gagging noises in the background. "Nah, those are just..." She reached up and stroked the middle spine of his fringe, "Fringe benefits." She laughed as he tried to hold back his purr, and Wrex smacked her shoulder.

"Hey, we're on a mission here, remember? Let's go make things explode, you can eat each other later." He made a few more sounds of disgust as he strode into the elevator, mumbling something to the effect of 'damn younglings and their hormones'.

Once everyone was piled into the elevator, he quietly - for a krogan – folded his hands in front of his chest, leaned over slightly, and prodded the elevator trigger with his tail. The self-satisfied smirk he wore dared any one of them to make a comment on it.

Shepard grinned. "Nice one, Wrex."

He nodded, his smirk turning into a grin as she noted his neck flushing almost imperceptibly.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

"You've done well, Rana. Now you must run, and live. We will contact you again when we have need of you."

Rana smiled at Saren, and nodded as she turned, heading quickly for the ground transports.

Saren spared only a moment to watch her flee, spreading his mandibles in a grin at the new child of the reapers. He stepped onto his personal anti-gravity unit, urging it up and forward to the platform where he knew Shepard and her team would be arriving soon. It was time to put an end to her interferences, once and for all.

As he lifted over the platform, his resolve suddenly faltered. A scent hit him powerfully; one he hadn't smelled for many years. A female in heat. It wasn't quite as strong as he remembered it, but it was enough to distract him. He snorted, and shook his head sharply, trying to rid himself of the distraction. He heard Sovereign's voice in his mind, trying to punch through the hormone-induced haze that was beginning to cloud his normally sharp senses. But his instincts were strong, and even the reaper was having trouble overpowering them. He looked around to try to find the female that was proving to be so infuriatingly distracting, but saw only a male turian, a krogan, asari, quarian, and a human female; Shepard.

He had employed no turian females for just this reason, he didn't need the distraction. So where was the scent coming from? The closer he drifted towards the mix-matched group of people, the stronger the scent became. The male turian spotted him first, pointing towards him and announcing his discovery to his comrades. All eyes -and guns - snapped to him. He aimed his pistol at the group and squeezed off a few shots, causing them to dive into the cover of some nearby pillars. He breathed deeply, trying to find the direction of the scent. It was coming directly from... _'Shepard? Impossible! She's human!'_ He snarled as he fought with his highly confused senses. He tried to think through the fog, and managed a small moment of clarity to speak.

"Shepard! You cannot hope to win. Why resist? Sovereign has offered amnesty to those willing to join it. I'm trying to save countless lives here, Shepard. But you're not making it easy. Why do you resist me at every turn? If you had any love for the galaxy, you would join us. I am in a unique position. I can keep casualties to a minimum. Can you say the same?"

He heard a scoff from behind Shepard's pillar. He heard a plaintive trill from the male, and he wondered for a moment if it was directed at him... until he heard the responding trill of refusal from behind Shepard's pillar. _'Now my hearing is deceiving me as well?'_ He watched as Shepard came out from behind the pillar with fire in her eyes. And she was _growling_, baring her teeth at him, with her pistol aimed at his head. He heard the male trilling alarm for a mate. His eyes widened as her scent hit him with its full impact. His eyes had to be deceiving him. Here was this obviously human female, sounding and smelling exactly like a turian female, with a male turian keening after her. He shook his head once more in a desperate play to right his warring senses.

Then, she spoke. "**Saren Arterius! About time we finally got to meet. Your betrayal of your friend and mine, Nihlus, has gone long enough without retribution. Not to mention your betrayal of not only the Hierarchy, but the entire galaxy! Do you have any final words before I blow your traitorous head off of your undeserving carapace?**"

He blinked. She had spoken in perfect turian. In the dialect of a superior, no less. He peered at her through slitted eyes, trying to rationalize the impossibility of what he was experiencing. Lacking any input from him for such an extended period, his anti-gravity unit slowly lowered to the ground, and powered down. He stepped off of the machine, taking slow steps towards the human in front of him, whose sub-vocals were impossibly screeching in anger and indignation. How much had the indoctrination affected him, that his own eyes would not see a plainly turian female in front of him? The thought stunned him, shaking him to his very core. That he would not recognize one of his own species standing in front of him, that he was so convoluted as to see her as a hated human... He barely heard Sovereign's indignant roar in the back of his mind, before he, Saren, surfaced.

"I... Shepard. Why are my eyes telling me you're human, when all my other senses say you're turian?" He kept his eyes to the pistol in his hand, lowering it slowly to his side.

He heard her speak again, in a voice so clearly turian that he must have been hallucinating to believe she was human. "**Because I am both, Saren. Do you think that your anger was the only result of the Relay 314 incident? I am both, because the war demanded an end. I am both, because our species are not so dissimilar that we needed to fight over it. I am both, because the Spirits demanded peace. It was granted by other means, but the Spirits demanded my existence. Would you deny the will of the Spirits, son of Arterius? Would you follow the demands of false gods to our end, or would you follow your own Spirit, and do what is right?**"

Her words struck him to the core. But he could hear the whispers of Sovereign's influence, tingling in the back of his skull. He knew he would not hold out for much longer in resistance against the machine. "I hear you, Shepard. And I thank you for trying to reach me." He looked up at her, seeing the truth of her words. But it was not enough. He wished it were otherwise, but it was simply not enough. "But Sovereign is too strong to resist. As long as it exists, I am nothing but a tool for it to use. I am sorryyyyARGH!" He doubled over in pain as Sovereign reasserted itself violently in his mind. He convulsed for a moment, then slowly straightened, and looked at her with a self-assured smirk. "Your interference is at an end, Shepard. You may fight it, but you will not win. We are your salvation through destruction." Saren stepped back onto the anti-gravity unit, and it whirred to life as he urged it back into flight.

He raised his pistol and began shooting at Shepard, sending a wave of biotic energy after her as she scrambled back behind the pillar she'd abandoned to speak to him. Shots began ringing out from various positions around him, her teammates making to take him down with her. His shields dropped quickly under the onslaught, and one of the bullets hit his anti-gravity unit, making it splutter in indignation. He urged it away from the fight, making a hasty retreat to Sovereign. He had a task to complete, and this was not his time to die.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

"Shit! Fucking bastard got away. What I wouldn't give to have another anti-grav unit to chase after his ass." She scowled at the barely visible dot of Saren flying away.

"Don't worry Vima, we'll get him. We're not done yet." Garrus reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She smiled back at him while the rest of her team filed in around her from their various cover positions. She sighed heavily as she spoke. "Alright, let's go pick up Ash and Kirrahe's team, then blow this place. Literally."


	16. Chapter 16

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 16

**A/N: Well, it's been a while. Lots of interesting stuff happened last time, and more to come, so let's dive right in, shall we? Oh, and haters keep right on hatin'. You're not gonna stop this train of lunatics. :D**

* * *

Shepard looked back at Virmire as the Normandy sped away, watching the brilliant flash of fire bloom up from the facility as she pressed the button on the remote detonator. Her smile was sad as she watched. While it was a beautiful – if small – explosion, and her crew had benefited significantly from the data they'd found there, she was saddened by the needless loss of life she'd witnessed within the facility.

There'd been many indoctrinated test subjects within, and while she had never been one to mourn putting an end to a life that deserved it, death by forced brainwashing was a horrible way to go. Her own methods were quick, and usually painless; mercy killings in some instances. She sent a prayer to the spirits for those lost both inside the facility, and those on Kirrahe's team that hadn't made it.

She turned and headed towards the elevator, wanting to check in on Kirrahe and the rest of his team, as well as give their report to the Council. She palmed the interface and leaned against the lift wall, sighing tiredly as it slowly ground its way to the engineering deck.

As the lift doors opened, she was assaulted with a myriad of voices coming from all over the cargo bay; most of them of the high-pitched, almost nasally, fast-paced salarian speech pattern variety; the rest a mix of the species she normally encountered on this deck. Wrex was growling at a young salarian lieutenant – couldn't have been older than 13 – for crowding his usual post against 'his' crates. Ash was talking almost as fast as the salarian she was speaking to, passionately arguing about gun mods. Garrus was talking with Kirrahe and one of his surviving team leaders about accommodations for his team until they reached the Citadel, which would be about a week-long trip. Tali had joined the fray, babbling techno-speak with three salarians at once, all of them spewing out enough technical jargon to make Shepard's head spin.

She rolled her eyes and huffed a sigh that made her cheeks puff out for a moment, then headed towards Kirrahe. Garrus looked up and flicked a smile at her, which she returned, then faced the STG Captain next to him. "Welcome aboard, Captain. I am ready to make my report to the Council, should you like to join me. I believe you mentioned something to that effect before we began the assault."

Kirrahe's face lit up fractionally as he nodded. "Yes, am ready, Shepard. Thank you for welcoming us aboard, our own ship was sadly not as lucky as yours when faced with the AA guns. Was just discussing accommodations for my team with Officer Vakarian, he assures me you have space, so that issue dealt with. Shall we?" He gestured towards the elevator quickly, then clasped his hands and nodded his head, quietly deferring to Shepard with the motion.

She smiled and imitated his gesture towards the elevator, heading for it with him tight on her trail. They stepped in and she hit the interface before leaning casually against the back of the slow-moving lift. A thought quirked the corner of her lip up, and she glanced over at the fidgety Captain beside her. "You know, Kirrahe, I didn't want to say anything too over the top at the time, but that was one hell of a speech you gave down there. I'm not even salarian, and I was inspired. For so many of your team to have made it out alive, they must've been even more inspired. You're a damn good leader, and I hope your government recognizes that."

Kirrahe's face flushed slightly greener than normal, a sly, guarded smile perking his lips as he looked over at her. "Thank you, Shepard. Is not always easy to fan the flame of courage in my species, but we do the best we can with what we have."

She nodded in respect and smiled at him as they both turned to face the now opening lift doors. They headed up the stairs to the CIC, and walked quietly into the comm room. Shepard activated her comm device. "Joker, patch the Council in if you would. You know, if it's not interrupting your Fornax viewing or anything." She grinned at Kirrahe as his eyes grew even larger than normal at her comment.

["Patching them in now, Taren. And for your information, I do work sometimes. I just know how to balance my play and work time, unlike someone else I know."]

Shepard laughed. "Ha! Touche, Joker."

The three councilors sputtered into view slowly behind the comm panel, and Shepard quickly plastered her 'Commander Mask' on as she faced them. She nodded respectfully to them before she spoke. "Councilors, this will be a jointly filed report by Captain Kirrahe and I. We have critical information about Saren and his associates that you need to know about. I am sorry to say that the galaxy must begin preparations for war. We'll soon be under siege by an enemy we may not be able to defeat, but we've gotta try."

Valern, the salarian councilor spoke first. "What proof do you have of this impending attack?"

Shepard held her hand up for a moment of silence. "If you will give me a moment, I will call Garrus Vakarian into the room. He recorded the entire mission for us on his C-SEC issued visor. He has all the proof you could possibly ask for, and if you will not accept his irrefutable evidence, then I will gladly submit any of my ground team's minds for your inspection, Councilor Tevos." She looked pointedly at the asari councilor, as if daring her to refuse the offer, should they attempt to dispute Garrus' recording as faked.

Sparatus, the turian councilor spoke up. "Very well Shepard, bring forth your evidence. I will accept the recording as proof, though I cannot speak for my compatriots." He slid a glance at the other two councilors, and Tevos nodded. After a few moments, Valern – grudgingly, it seemed – also nodded.

Shepard dipped her head slightly, bringing her fingers up to her ear to activate her comm chip. "Garrus, please report to the comm room."

She was about to address the Councilors again when she heard his voice on her comm, where nobody else could hear. {"On my way. You know, it feels strange when you call me anything but Vima now. I can't believe it's only been two weeks since we bonded, it feels like years with all the little side mission we go on. Oh, by the way, I downloaded a new vid yesterday I think you should see. It's an independent film about a turian-human couple, and the challenges they face... as well as the perks they discover as they get closer to each other. The reviews were pretty stellar."}

She coughed as her eyes shifted nervously to the Councilors, who were waiting for her to speak, and she replied as tactfully as possible, given the situation. "I'll take that under advisement, Garrus. Shepard _out_." She hoped he would get the hint.

Fortunately, Kirrahe decided to take the opportunity to give the Council his report, while Garrus' voice sounded once again in Shepard's ear. {"Ohhh ho-ho, the Council are on the comms right now, aren't they?"} He took her silence as an affirmative answer, so he resumed his assault on her auditory senses. {"Am I being distracting? Is my 'beautiful voice' keeping you from performing your duties, Commander?"}

She shot a quick, nervous glance towards the holo-image of Sparatus as the thought of flexing her throat to trill her annoyance (as well as some arousal) through her comm occurred to her, then was swiftly squashed. Even through the long-range comms, she knew sub-harmonics could easily be heard, and she wanted to let the video evidence show them the truth of her heritage, rather than her own slip-up.

Garrus sounded like he was barely holding back laughter as his voice resonated through her senses once more. {"I'll bet you're just dying to let me know exactly what you think of my little distraction, aren't you? You know, my visor recording will reveal to the Council that you're a hybrid. I wonder what Councilor Sparatus will think of that? I'm going to love watching his face. As much as he's always gone on about humans not being ready to join the galactic community, I'm curious how shocked he'll be to find out he's let a turian masquerading as a human join the Spectre's."}

She barely held back the smirk that scene in her head induced, and she bit her lip, trying hard to appear as if she were concentrating on Kirrahe's report. She nearly sighed in relief as she heard the doors behind her swish open, and she turned to see Garrus enter, a cocky smirk on his plated face. He wasn't in range of the comm's holo-sensors yet, so his momentary joviality would not be noted by the Council members. He fought hard to straighten his face as Shepard glared at him with a look that screamed 'you will pay for this later', but he somehow managed it, just as he came in range of the holo-sensors. He came to a stop slightly behind and beside Shepard, as he waited for Kirrahe to finish his report.

It didn't take long, the salarians being the efficient species they were known to be, and the Councilors turned their attention back towards Shepard and her newly arrived companion. Sparatus nodded greeting to Garrus, which he returned, before removing his visor and taking out the small storage chip that contained his visor's recorded data. He inserted it into the comm panel, and keyed up the video feed of their mission on Virmire. Everyone stood watching the playback with rapt attention, pausing intermittently when one of the Councilors would ask a question.

Sparatus quirked an browplate the first time Garrus called Shepard Vima, but held his tongue. Each subsequent time the term was uttered, his face grew more perplexed and tight, until he finally had the appearance of a very constipated turian. Ever the proper turian, he refrained from commenting on it, but it was obvious that it was bothering him. When the video played the part of her telling Wrex to retrieve the genophage cure data if he was able, Valern and Sparatus both interjected their harsh disapproval of her actions, but ceded that it would be many years – if it ever occurred – before the krogans would finish the cure by their own means. By comparison, their reaction to the geth being modified was mild. Very concerned, but mild.

When the recording finally reached the point of their conversation with Sovereign, Shepard paused the video of her own volition, and looked at each of the Councilors in turn as she spoke. "What you are about to see is the holographic representation of a reaper. This is the cause of the invasion I have warned you about. As you watch this, please keep in mind that the actual ship that contains this being is nearly as large as the Destiny Ascension, and has obliterated everything in its path so far. If you choose to ignore this threat, the entire galaxy will suffer for your refusal to see the truth."

Tevos nodded her affirmation. "Please continue, Shepard."

Shepard resumed the playback.

Every eye in the room, holographic or otherwise, was fixed on the recording as Sovereign began to speak. Shepard could feel the tension building in the Council chambers from where she stood, as the holographic figures grew rigid, tense, their faces more and more concerned and worried as time went on at what they were witnessing. As the windows of the room in the playback shattered, the tension nearly broke as all three holographic figures jumped slightly in surprise. Shepard paused the video.

"This is one of the creatures that wiped out the protheans fifty-thousand years ago. We don't have a lot of data on them, other than what scarce bits have been retrieved during missions, as well as what the prothean beacons have shown me. They are incredibly powerful, a destructive force that wants only one thing: the extermination of life as we know it. If we do not find some way to fight these beings, we will all be obliterated, just like the protheans were.

As you know from my Feros mission report, I encountered a creature that was old enough to have first-hand knowledge of the protheans. Saren had sacrificed one of his followers – an asari – to it, in exchange for the cypher, which is the key to understanding the prothean language, and thus the messages from the beacons. I am beginning to fully understand what the message each beacon has been giving me is. Each one gives a different perspective of the complete harvesting, and utter annihilation of the prothean race. They all tell the same story. If we are not prepared to fight against them, we will be harvested, just as the protheans were; just as every galactic civilization that came before them were. They do not know mercy, they do not negotiate. They are synthetic, heartless, and immensely powerful.

As I mentioned earlier, Councilor Tevos, I would be happy to submit my mind for your examination, should you believe me to be lying, or adjusting the truth. Or, if you simply want to see what the beacons have been telling me. Whatever it takes to get the council on-board with preparations, we will cooperate fully."

Tevos seemed deep in thought, before she finally nodded and spoke. "I believe you, Shepard. However, I must confess, I am curious about these visions. I would like to witness them myself. If you are able to impart a clear translation of them, I should very much like to know what the protheans left behind for us to find."

"I'll do my best, Councilor. Dr. Liara T'Soni may be able to help in that regard, and we should be arriving at the citadel in about a week's time." Shepard sighed and gestured to the paused video. "The rest of the mission is worth a look, if you would like to watch. We encountered Saren in person, and I believe he is indoctrinated, based on Dr. Thanoptis' description of the symptoms. It would explain quite a bit as to why he would choose to help the reapers, as well as why he betrayed the Council, and the galaxy as a whole. He is not in his right mind, if he is indoctrinated. I will let you decide for yourselves, should you choose to watch." She tried not to twitch nervously, as she thought of what else the rest of the video contained.

Valern spoke up. "By all means, let's get on with it."

Shepard nodded and resumed the video. The playback continued to their confrontation with Saren, as Shepard watched Sparatus' face closely. When the file played Saren's questions to her about smelling and sounding like a turian, both of Sparatus' browplates rose significantly, and when her recorded self revealed her heritage, his jaw and mandibles slackened in shock, his eyes wide in realization. Shepard fully expected him to scream in outrage, but neither a sub-vocal scream, nor his silent voice betrayed any such thought.

She chanced a look at the other two Councilors, who were equally surprised, but seemed to recover far more quickly. Shepard fixed her gaze back on Sparatus, who was now looking at her, rather than the video, and when she heard the indignant shock and questioning begin to rise in his subvocals, her lip twitched into the tiniest of smirks as she stretched her throat and trilled affirmation. He blinked, his eyes going wider than it seemed possible for a turian, then returned his eyes to the video, which was displaying Saren convulsing as Sovereign took control once more. As the scene quickly escalated into the firefight, then ended with Saren's escape, The Council collectively donned expressions of concern on their faces, as their gazes slowly traveled from the recording to Shepard.

She stopped the recording, and Garrus took the chip from the comm interface. Shepard took a breath before she spoke up. "The rest of the mission is just my ground team picking up Captain Kirrahe and his men, then leaving the planet. We detonated the charges after we reached a safe distance, and the facility has been destroyed. We also managed to retain that geth Prime unit we captured, and it is currently being studied by our resident geth expert, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, as well as our chief medical officer, Dr. Karin Chakwas. As soon as they have a report ready, I'll forward it to you." She stood quietly as she waited for what she assumed were the inevitable questions about the only topic she'd failed to mention: her newly revealed heritage.

Sparatus looked as if he were about to speak, when Tevos interrupted unwittingly. "Very good, Shepard. We will expect the rest of the information in a personal report once you've arrived at the Citadel. Is there anything else we should know about?"

Shepard shook her head. "No, Councilors. Until we have the full report on the modified geth Prime unit, we have no further intel to contribute."

Tevos nodded as if to accept Shepard's words, then cut the comm link, but Sparatus intervened this time. "Do not expect that we have forgotten the... other information regarding you personally, Shepard. We shall be discussing those details in depth once you arrive. Council out."

As the comm link blinked and faded out, Shepard looked to Garrus, worry creasing her features. "Odd that they would wait to discuss that. Do they suspect someone is listening in, maybe?"

Garrus shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they want a more in-depth study? Or they need time to confirm it? I'm surprised Sparatus held back as well as he did, I fully expected at least some sort of outburst, if not from learning your heritage, then from finding out that we're bonded."

Shepard nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly, it doesn't make sense. I mean, there was a small reaction for a moment, but Sparatus is usually so outspoken. I wonder if they're looking to sweep this under the rug, so to speak."

Garrus quirked a browplate at this. "Sweep it under the rug?"

Shepard blinked in confusion at first, then realized she'd used a human saying, something she normally didn't do around him. "Oh, sorry. It means to cover it up, or try to hide or ignore it."

His features relaxed as comprehension dawned on him. "Ah, yeah that would make sense, if that was their intention."

Shepard turned to Kirrahe, who appeared to be deep in thought, and not paying any attention to their conversation. "So, Captain, ready to get your crew settled in for the trip?"

Kirrahe's eyes lit up as she addressed him, and he cleared his throat as he spoke. "Yes, ready. Am curious myself, regardless of Council's intentions though. How do you have turian DNA?"

Shepard and Garrus both sighed and shared a tired look. She gave a slight smile to Kirrahe and began. "Well Captain, it all started years ago, in the first contact war..."

~o0o0o0o0o0o~

Tali was having a field day. She'd managed to wrangle the salarians she'd been speaking to earlier in the cargo hold into investigating the Prime unit along with her, and they were all eagerly picking apart the specimen, under Chakwas' watchful eye. What they'd uncovered so far was both horrifying and fascinating all at once. Her nerves pricked under her skin as the anticipation mounted with each new discovery.

The geth had been modifying themselves for many years before the reapers had gotten their claws into them, and each new technological advancement was carefully recorded and cataloged in the data packet she intended to return to the Flotilla with, after sending a copy to the Council through Shepard.

As she slowly dismantled the unit's central processing chamber, something flickered at the edge of her vision, in the direction of the unit's partially disassembled head. She jerked her head towards it and stared, hoping it had been nothing but nerves. As nothing moved for several moments, she returned her attention to her task, shrugging. Another flicker snapped her eyes to the geth's 'face', for lack of a better term.

She looked around at her little team of salarians, then up at the good Doctor, all of whom were staring at the geth's face. Apparently she wasn't the only one who'd noticed. Good, she wasn't going crazy. She backed away from her prodding, and ran a deep scan on the central processing chamber, hoping to find some clue as to why the geth was reacting, when it should have been dead.

As the readings started to roll up her screen, she muttered the important bits to herself. "Low level functions still active, cognitive processors shut down, area scanners... active... Keelah, it's still alive! Barely, but still..."

She shared an apprehensive look with her fellow investigators. "I'm calling Shepard down here. Who knows what this thing could be capable of."

As everyone nodded their affirmation of her suggestion, she activated her comm unit. "Shepard, can you please come down to Engineering? We may have a situation with the Prime unit."

{"On my way, Tali."} Came Shepard's reply.

Tali looked up at Chakwas as a thought came to her. "I'm going to go get Wrex and Ash too, tell me if something else happens while I'm gone, I won't be but a minute."

At Chakwas' nod, she stood and rushed out of Engineering, running towards Wrex's area, as she shouted to both he and Ash, "Wrex, Ash, come with me, something's going on with the geth! Shepard's on her way."

She turned and ran back to Engineering before they had a chance to reply, both of them hot on her heels.


	17. Chapter 17

When You're Strange

Chapter 17

A/N: Been a while, trying to get back into the swing of things. Skyrim is sucking my soul out piece by piece. XD

Some craziness, some fluff, and some excitement! Enjoy :D

Beta'd by: The crazy and wonderful Barbex

* * *

Shepard burst into engineering with Garrus and Kirrahe hot on her heels, eyes alert and pistol in hand. As she took in the scene of numerous species crowded around what must've been the Prime unit, she inhaled sharply, only to blurt out, "Report!" as she edged closer to the group.

Most of the group either spun or turned their heads as they heard her outburst, and several people started talking at once. The most she could make out of the babble of voices was: "IT MOVED!"

Her eyes snapped to the partially dismantled geth on the floor, lids narrowing in an attempt to concentrate on it, and aiming her pistol at its head. After a few moments, she lifted her gaze, satisfied that it wasn't moving - for the moment - and looked at Tali with a quirked eyebrow. "Tali, what's going on?"

Tali looked down at the scattered synthetic materials surrounding the geth, then back up at Shepard. "It's... still alive, Shepard. Barely registering base functions. Its comm unit is in pieces, so it can't contact anyone outside of the ship. It's moved just slightly once or twice, probably stray electrical impulses. It's aware of us, and that it's heavily damaged, but not much else. It's not damaged enough to warrant it to self destruct, but very nearly. I wasn't sure what you would want done with it, or if it would just get up and start trying to kill us all, that's why I called you."

Shepard's focus turned back to the Prime unit, lying completely decimated on the floor, and her eyes widened in disbelief. "How can this thing possibly be alive? It's got enough holes in it to take down a krogan!"

She heard a rumbling huff to her left, and she cast an apologetic look towards Wrex, who was giving her a rather disgruntled stare. "It's true, and you know it." He huffed again, rolling his eyes, before giving the tiniest of nods in assent.

Shepard shifted her view to Tali once more, resting her left hand on her hip, and pointing at the pile of synthetics on the floor with her pistol. "Alright, explain to me how this thing is still living when it's in pieces, with holes in it the size of my fist?"

Tali shook her head and brought up her omni-tool. "This is the latest readout I have from it."

Shepard flicked her wrist to activate her own omni-tool, and set it to receive a data packet. Her concentration wavered between the Prime and the data as she read it over, then stared wide-eyed at Tali once more. "How is that even possible? You're saying it can hear us too?"

Tali nodded twice. "Yes, it's been trying to repair its optical sensor for the past hour." Her eyes lowered over the streams of data scrolling up her omni-tool's screen, lifting her other hand to toggle a few commands.

Shepard turned to face Garrus, a worried expression darkening her features. She gnawed at her lips for a moment, then parted them to speak. Just then, a filtered gasp was heard from Tali's direction, and she swiveled her head towards Tali just as a familiar "Keelah!" was heard.

"What is it, Tali?" Shepard queried.

Tali was silent for a few moments, her fingers flying rapidly over various commands on her 'tool; until she finally lifted her head to stare with bright, wide eyes at Shepard. "Shepard... The geth is... trying to communicate with us!"

A surprised murmur spread over the small crowd gathered like wildfire, and Shepard took a step towards the origin of the flame, skepticism plain for any to see on her face. She nodded towards Tali's 'tool, and spoke urgently, "Show me."

Tali angled her omni-tool screen so Shepard could see the readout, pointing to specific data points. "See the numbers here, and here? These are baseline coding queries. The only time you would see these kinds of readings is if you have a completely new geth unit. I haven't seen anything like this since I saw old data of the readouts of new geth units from before the Morning War."

Shepard stared at Tali in shock. "So what you're saying is, this geth is waiting to... receive programing?"

Tali continued to watch the data streaming over her screen, but nodded. "Correct. It's asking for its directive." She finally lifted her eyes from the readout and locked eyes with Shepard. "Shepard, if we could program this geth to work for us... even with us..." she trailed off, imagining the possibilities.

"It could be a significant ally in this fight, if it were possible." Her eyes narrowed as thoughts churned through her mind. "Tali, could you program this geth to help us? Would it even work? Or would it turn on us the first chance it got?"

Tali wrung her hands, shifting her concentration to the wall just to the left and behind Shepard, seeming to search for the answer in the face of the metal sheeting. Suddenly, her eyes brightened as her entire body perked up, and her filtered voice pierced the heavy silence of the room as if a shot had rung out. "Yes! I can. I need to contact my father, he has more experience with geth coding, but I think it could work. We could at least give it rudimentary functionality to assess its status properly. For now, I will remove its ability to move its arms and legs so it won't pose a threat to anyone. Then I can contact my father and get to work on the hard parts."

Her own excitement was infectious, as nearly the entire room seemed to buzz with energy and anticipation at delving into this strange new project. Wrex and Ashley both seemed rather unsure of the whole situation, while Shepard and Garrus kept a wary eye on Tali and her new pet project, as she began to remove servos, wiring, and chips from the Prime's legs and arms.

After a few minutes, she stood and surveyed her handiwork. "There, it won't be able to move anything but its head and spine now." She glanced up at Shepard and Garrus, who were still pointing guns vaguely in the Prime's direction. "You don't need those anymore, it can't move." Her eyes seemed to smile behind the dark tint of her mask, and they slowly holstered their weapons, still watching the Prime carefully for any sign of a threat.

Tali sighed. "It's perfectly safe for now. The worst it can do is self destruct, and the only thing that would hurt would be itself. I'll contact my father as soon as we get near a comm buoy, which should be in about five minutes." She nodded and knelt back down next to the Prime, twisting wires together and fidgeting with seemingly random parts.

Shepard looked up at Garrus, and grimaced slightly. "She might think that thing is safe, but I'm putting a rotating security detail on it to guard it at all times. If that thing's toe twitches, they'll have orders to shoot it. In the head this time."

Garrus flicked a mandible out in a smirk, but nodded his agreement. "Yeah, I don't trust that thing as far as I can throw it."

Shepard blinked and raised an eyebrow at him. "That was an awfully human thing for you to say." She crossed her arms and rocked back on her hip as she regarded him with a tiny smirk of amusement.

He twitched his mandibles slightly as his neck flushed just a bit. "Figured I'd try something new. Did I get it right, at least?" He cocked his head to the side and trilled nervous amusement.

She couldn't help the grin that spread across her lips then. "Yes, you got it perfectly, actually. Correct type of circumstance and everything. I'm just surprised you made the effort." She chuckled lightly and waved her hand forward. "Come on, I'll get the security detail down here, and we can go grab food, showers and some much deserved sleep."

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Shepard stuck her nose in the small dextro fridge and sniffed once. "Green, purple, or yellow?" She called back over her shoulder.

She heard a hum of distaste for all three options before Garrus spoke. "Green I guess. Might I convince you to pick up a bit more variety when we get to the Citadel, Vima?" She heard a mildly guilty chirp behind the question, and smiled to herself as she grabbed the green container of rations and walked to the counter.

She flexed her throat in preparation as she spoke. "I might be convinced to do that. What's my reward if I do?" She trilled nothing but the purest of innocence with the question, though her lips were curled up in an impish grin.

Garrus snorted. "A happier sniper and engineer, to start with..." He quirked his head to the side in curiosity, listening carefully to her subvocal cues, "and I imagine you would like some better tasting options for our meal times together, since you seem to hate making two different dishes." He ended the comment with a damningly curious chirp.

Shepard's hands stilled momentarily on one unopened package of dextro rations, sighing and closing her eyes as she trilled acknowledgment that she'd been caught. "I... I never really cared much for the flavor of levo rations. Dextro have much more spice to them. Even if they aren't as useful to me nutritionally as levo, I still prefer dextro rations for the flavor. Plus, mom always cooked dextro since she and I both could eat it and..." She trailed off, keening sadly.

Garrus keened for her in sympathy, but she quickly shook her head.

"No, don't. I got over that a long time ago. No point dwelling in the past." She flexed her throat once more, her playful mood gone, and busied her hands with preparing their meal. Her shoulders sagged when she heard the scrape of metal against metal, as Garrus pushed his chair back to stand. She heard him pad slowly to her, and felt the weight of his hand on her shoulder.

"Vima." He chided gently, and she leaned her head to the side to stroke his armored hand with her cheek.

She slowly shook her head as she righted her head. "Don't worry about it, Garrus. Times like these, we can't afford to dwell. I still feel it, I just... try not to think about it." She turned her head to face him with a sad smile and a nod, then faced forward to finish up the food preparation.

He persisted for a moment, keening sadly and nuzzling the back of her head in a comforting gesture, then licked her cheek and quietly walked back to the table. She smiled down at her hands as she worked to turn the simple rations into something slightly more palatable. As she finished, she grabbed the first plate and brought it over to Garrus with a small flourish.

"Dinner is served, my good sir." She bowed dramatically, grinning at him as he shook his head, mandibles splayed in his own version of a smile.

"You're too good to me, m'lady." He chuckled and nodded as she winked at him, sauntering off to retrieve her own food.

She returned quickly with her food and utensils for them both. "Well, don't get used to it. I'm not what one would consider a... 'good turian mate', as it were." She intoned, bringing up her fingers to air quote her comment. "I don't normally cook anything but rations, and well, you've seen my quarters. Organization and house tending is a toss-up." She flushed slightly, embarrassment crawling its way across up her face.

Garrus trilled sharply in disappointment, watching her blush even hotter before letting up and barking a laugh. "Well, it's a good thing I'm not a very good turian then, isn't it Vima?"

She looked up from her plate to him, and in a flash, her face went from a sheepish expression to indignation. "You dick! You actually had me thinking you were upset about it!" She reached over the table and punched him in the shoulder.

He winced, watching her expression slowly soften into bemused triumph as he rubbed his shoulder. He shook his head and hummed amused surprise. "One would think you hadn't noticed that I don't care about that sort of thing yet, the way you were acting. I figured I'd let you wallow in your shame for a few minutes, since you seemed so intent on it." He flicked a mandible out in a smirk.

"Damned turian." She said, rolling her eyes.

She registered movement behind him, and her eyes flicked towards it. She saw Chakwas moving towards one of the beds in the medbay. She suddenly realized it was Kaidan's, and growled. Garrus' attention snapped to her, then to the object of her ire, and joined her with his own growl. They watched as Chakwas changed the bandages on Kaidan's neck, checking the healing progress of the wounds, which they could see from their positions were healing cleanly.

Shepard snorted and ripped her attention away from the scene, down to her plate. "He doesn't deserve to stay on this ship." She seethed through clenched teeth, picking up her fork to begin prodding her food in an attempt to distract herself from doing what she really wanted to do: toss Kaidan's traitorous ass out of the nearest airlock.

She forcefully shoved her fork under a bit of food, and popped it into her mouth, chewing and going for the next bite. Just then, she realized how damn hungry she was. So much had happened in the past six hours, she'd barely had any time to think, let alone pay attention to her body's needs, and she began eagerly shoveling food into her mouth.

She paused when she heard a trill of surprised amusement instead of growling from across the table, and looked up at Garrus, swallowing quickly. "What?" she asked indignantly.

His right mandible flared out. "Hungry?"

Her eyes went wide as she nodded. "Starving." Her eyes returned hungrily to her plate as she continued to eat, ignoring his light laughter.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

He fidgeted quietly, unable to shake the uncomfortable feeling he was overcome with ever since he'd awoken in the medbay after... the 'incident'. It wasn't just the itching of the bandages on his neck, or the pain of the sterilized, but otherwise unattended slashes in his face; no, this was another feeling entirely. It felt as if he were being... watched. He'd tried many times to turn about and see who might be doing the watching, but each time he'd been held back, either by the pain from the now mostly healed wounds in his neck, or by Dr. Chakwas admonishing him not to upset those very same wounds.

The feeling went as far as haunting him in his dreams. But even there, when he would turn to look, there would be nothing. Nothing but the feeling of someone watching him. By that point in the dream, he would shudder, and wake to the brightness of the medbay once more.

He had just woken from one such dream, closing his eyes in an attempt to shake off the feeling, when he felt the hand of Dr. Chakwas on his shoulder, softly shaking him as if to wake him. He opened his eyes, slowly focusing on her face as she spoke.

"I need to change your bandages, Kaidan." She said simply, and he nodded his acceptance of the intrusion.

As she got to work, he watched her face, noting the look of relief as the bandages gave way to what must've been nicely healing skin. "Looking much better today. You won't be in here much longer, I dare say." She commented with a slight smile. "You won't be needing these anymore, the wounds are healed well enough to go without them." She held up the wrapping she'd just removed from his neck as she spoke.

He nodded and offered a small smile. "Good to hear, they were getting a bit itchy."

Chakwas smiled understandingly as she handed him a tube of medigel. "Apply a dab of this to each side twice a day until it runs out, and they should heal up with little to no scarring."

"Thanks Doc." He nodded, then paused. "Doc, what about my face? Can't you do something for it?"

Her features hardened as her eyes regarded him with a steely gaze. "You know I can't, Kaidan. My loyalties lie with Shepard and the Alliance, and neither of them will side with you on the matter of your... indiscretion against her. What you did was completely reprehensible, no matter how it's looked at. Your wounds are healing well, and the marks on your face are clean, and will heal properly. That is all I can offer." She shook her head and turned to walk towards her desk.

Kaidan shook his own head in confusion. "Why are you so loyal to her, Doc? I can understand being loyal to the Alliance, but you haven't served with Shepard any longer than I have."

She stopped near her desk and turned to face him. "That's where you're wrong, Kaidan. I've known Taren since she was sixteen years old. I've been her primary physician since then, and she considers me a second mother, just as I consider her a daughter. I know more about her and her past than most on this ship. Things that are not in her records. She has saved my life in as many ways as I have saved hers. I owe her a great deal, just as she does me. I would not have been appointed as the doctor for this ship, had that not been the case."

Kaidan blinked in surprise. "Why wouldn't you have gotten this assignment? You're a great doctor, your skill speaks for itself."

Chakwas smiled. "Thank you Kaidan. But in answer to your question, we all have our secrets. Some are darker than others. Mine just happen to be dark enough to warrant more than a few lousy postings until now. Skill isn't everything, sadly."

She picked up a datapad and walked out of the medbay, indicating that the conversation – for her part, at least – was over.

Kaidan laid his head back and looked up at the ceiling, deep in thought.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

["This is Rael'Zorah vas Neema, calling for Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."]

Tali rushed to the comms console in engineering, hurriedly keying on the vidscreen. "Hello father. It is good to see you."

A small sound of disapproval could be heard from the quarian on the screen. ["Pity it isn't under better circumstances. I still cannot believe you are withholding data from the Flotilla to send it to the damned Council first. Have you forgotten your duty to the Fleet, Tali? Has your pilgrimage truly changed you so much?"]

Tali hung her head as she wrung her hands worriedly. "No father, I haven't forgotten. The data will be sent soon."

Rael sighed. ["Very well. Onto the matter at hand."] He lowered his gaze to the omni-tool glowing on his wrist. ["Your message mentioned an intact geth unit cut off from the consensus and requesting an initial directive, and this Commander of yours wants to try to program it to serve her needs in this apparent war. Is that correct?"]

Tali nodded. "Yes father."

["Show me."] He demanded.

She stood aside, allowing the camera a full view of the Prime unit splayed out on the engineering deck's upper floor, complete with a trio of salarians, two guards hovering anxiously, and Dr. Chakwas standing by.

A barely audible gasp from the comms console snapped Tali's attention back to the screen.

Rael's eyes brightened behind his mask as he spoke barely above a whisper at first in his shock. ["Keelah, a Prime? Tali, you failed to mention it was a Prime unit you'd recovered! This is an extraordinary opportunity!"] His voice rose with his excitement.

Tali quirked her head to the side as her confusion relayed itself in her voice. "I don't understand father, why does the platform matter? I thought it was the programs the platform housed that mattered."

Rael adopted the tone of an impatient teacher trying to teach something that should be common knowledge to even a child. ["For normal units, that is what matters, yes. But a Prime is unique, in that it may house up to two-thousand programs on it independently, without requiring a hub, or other units near it to be intelligent, to learn and evolve. It eventually does need to connect via a hub for software updates from the geth consensus, but it is otherwise an autonomous unit. If we can program this unit successfully to assist us, it could indeed be a powerful ally in your Commander's little war, and perhaps beyond even that."]

Tali was nearly bouncing with excitement. "So you will help us program it?"

Rael nodded enthusiastically. ["Yes Tali. I will bring a small group of specialists with me. This will take a few days to organize however. What is your current heading?"]

Tali tapped a few commands into a nearby console. "We'll be at the Citadel in a week. Here are our current coordinates. We can meet you at any relay along the way."

Rael inclined his head. ["Very well. I shall send word when we are ready to depart, and leave a location for the rendezvous with your pilot. Be well, child. Keelah se'lai."]

"Keelah se'lai, father. See you soon."


	18. Chapter 18

**When You're Strange**

Chapter 18

**A/N: ****Hey guys, I know it's been a while, lots of crazy stuff happening RL. This is a bit shorter than usual, but I felt the chapter should end where it did. So yeah. Enjoy :D**

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-What...is...our...directive?-

The simple binary code scrolled across Tali's screen over and over, asking the same question with maddeningly increasing frequency, interrupting her work in a spectacularly annoying fashion.

She had a feeling that if there was no answer by the time the signal became constant, something bad might happen. There was, of course, no real proof of this theory, but it still nagged her despite her best efforts to ignore it and move on with her shift work.

She sighed as she stared at the console she was supposed to be running diagnostics on. In two days, her father would be here with his team to work on the Prime unit, working with programming that her people hadn't touched in four hundred years.

She was excited, but she had to admit, the thought also made her nervous. Shepard wasn't known for being the most diplomatic person in the galaxy, and relations between quarians and the rest of the galaxy were already strained thanks to everyone in Council space believing quarians to be nothing more than thieves and vagabonds. The quarian's cloistered society didn't help matters any, leaving the rest of the galaxy with little idea of what quarians were really like.

She shook her head and resolved to at least try to concentrate on her work, muting her omni-tool to prevent further distractions from the Prime, still sprawled over the floor behind her. But the Prime wasn't the only odd entity in 'her' engineering today, annoyingly distracting her from her work. The labored creaking groan of metal plates grinding against each other as armor rubbed armor behind her was proof enough of her other distraction.

Wrex hadn't left engineering without at least two other guards present since Tali first frantically called him in with Ash, days ago. He'd completely abandoned his normal post in the cargo bay, making it somehow feel empty when Tali passed through it on the way to meals, despite the several crew members that could regularly be found there still occupying the space.

The oddity of it all was, he only seemed to be present in engineering during her shifts. The previous night, she'd been woken by a nightmare of the Prime waking and somehow repairing itself fully, turning hostile, then blatantly going to _her_ console in engineering and reversing all of her careful calibrations. The image plagued her until she finally decided to go down to engineering herself to look, only to find it nearly empty aside from the still immobilized Prime, one human tech, and two guards chatting amiably. She'd shaken her head, and returned to bed tiredly, wondering at her own sanity for assuming a nightmare could actually be reality.

Today, he was yet again standing on the left side of engineering, near the Prime's head, shifting his weight occasionally from one foot to the other, arms crossed, leaning against the wall. As surreptitiously as she could, she turned to look at him, still standing there imposingly. She thought she'd escaped his notice, until his large, red eye rounded on her, as he raised his eyebrow at her. She quickly turned to her console, body stiff in the embarrassment of being caught in the act, and tried to contain the blue flush of her skin as she heard him chuckle quietly – for a krogan - to himself.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Dr. Karin Chakwas sat in the medbay, staring at a datapad containing the results of Shepard's blood work from the small tube she'd taken when she'd visited to fill the bag for her... substitute. Her eyebrows knitted together in concern as she read the information for probably the tenth time, comparing the results to other samples she'd taken over the years.

What most people on the Normandy had no knowledge of, was that Shepard's age had just recently ticked over to twenty-five years. With her special genetic background, this meant a lot of things, but one of the most troubling of these was that her body was just now settling into one of the final stages of change and growth that she would sustain for the rest of her life. With that change came the final revelation of a disturbing trend Karin had been charting over her years as Shepard's personal physician.

Shepard's turian side was growing stronger.

For a normal turian female, this would be the phase where fertility would begin to skyrocket, heat cycles becoming more intensely debilitating, pheromones becoming completely irresistible to any turian male in the vicinity, along with a host of other physical signs of blooming into a fully functional turian female. It was also the time that life mates were typically chosen for both genders.

For Shepard, it meant that her turian traits would likely become slightly more pronounced. According to the data Karin had on Shepard's mother, she had become nearly entirely turian in appearance during these years, aside from a full head of hair, and softer features.

While Karin was hardly worried that Shepard would suddenly sprout mandibles and a fully hardened carapace, there was still some concern for her being able to maintain any semblance of the ruse of humanity that she'd been able to maintain for so many years.

While Shepard was aware of the trend that had been occurring, Karin thought it best to discuss possible tactics with her, should it actually become a problem in the near future. She also needed to discuss what was to be done with Alenko, as he was now more than healed enough to be released from her care.

She sighed and set the datapad down, standing slowly and stretching as she heard several pops from her spine, sighing again in relief at the feeling. She headed out of the medbay, locking the door behind her as she went, then walked towards Shepard's cabin across the mess hall.

~o0o0o0o0oo0o~

Shepard worried her bottom lip with her teeth as she sat at her small desk. A datapad dangled from her hand, completely ignored in favor of her racing thoughts, centered on her upcoming meeting with the Council. Her mind kept coming up with scenarios where the Council would decide she would be more useful to them as a test subject than a Spectre, at which she would inevitably shudder in shameful fear.

She sighed and lifted the datapad to her desk, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, raising her fingers to rub the bridge of her nose tightly, feeling a nasty stress headache trying to rear its ugly head. She stood with a huff, deciding to poke her head into the medbay to grab some mild painkillers, but was waylaid by the ding of the entry request signal on her door.

She raised a brow and sauntered over to the door, keying it open to reveal none other than the exact person she wanted to see.

"Ahh Doc, I was about to go look for you. I'm nursing a bit of a stress headache." She stated, grimacing slightly as she kneaded the side of her neck in hopes of relieving the pain a bit.

Karin's eyes lit up in understanding, and she held up a finger for Shepard to wait as she trotted back to the medbay, returning moments later with a small white pill. "Take this, it should take the edge off without knocking you out." She smiled as she handed Shepard the pill.

Shepard smiled in relief as she popped the pill and swallowed. "Thanks a ton Doc. Come on in, I'm guessing you wanted to discuss something?" She sat down on the couch, gesturing to it with an open hand as she did. "Have a seat, take a load off."

Karin sat eagerly enough, settling in with one knee crossed over the other, folded hands resting on her thighs. She then launched into conversation without any more delay. "Shepard, I have two things to discuss with you. One is what you are going to do with Alenko, as he is now well enough to be dismissed from my care and keeping him there is counter-productive to my work at this point."

She sighed before coming to her other reason for coming. "The second is your latest blood work. I finally had a chance to run the sample I took from you a few weeks ago and I must say I have concerns, Shepard. The trend towards the turian part of you taking over isn't decreasing and you know this may become a concern as time goes on. I'd like to go over your options with you if you have the time."

Shepard rolled her neck, rubbing the kinks out of it as her face took on a look of thoughtfulness. "Well Doc, as far as Alenko is concerned, he can take a walk out the nearest airlock for all I care. But I do have plans for him before I release him to the Alliance for Court Martial, so if you say he's well enough to be released from your care, then I'll have an armed escort take him to the brig until those plans can be allowed to come into fruition."

She sighed as she considered the next item on the docket. "As for my lovely DNA screwing with me, it's... really not a problem. Yet. The Council knows now. The latest mission report kind of blew my cover in regards to that little secret, so yeah."

Karin's features darkened at this news. "Oh, Shepard... That could be very bad. Surely there was a way to avoid this discovery on their part?"

Shepard shook her head. "Afraid not, Doc. Garrus' visor picked up my subharmonics, but even if it hadn't, I admitted it to Saren to try to sway him from continuing on this reckless campaign he's on. I wanted to try to break his indoctrination. It did work for a few minutes, but he just wasn't strong enough to break it for good."

She looked over at her surrogate mother, leaning forward as she continued. "There's good in him, Karin. I want to save him if I can. If Tali's father can program this Prime unit to help us... Maybe we can save him. I couldn't save Liara's mother, or any of the people at Saren's research facility and those are both monumental failures in my books. I've got to try. If I do nothing else, I've got to at least try."

Karin reached over and patted Shepard's shoulder, letting it stay there to rub gently back and forth in soothing strokes. "You did everything you could, my dear. Nobody could've done more than you did."

Shepard stood abruptly, striding away from the couch anxiously. "But it wasn't enough, was it?" She began pacing, "Those people are dead because I couldn't help them. Liara is mourning a mother she shouldn't have lost for years because I couldn't help her. How many other families are mourning the loss of their sons, daughters, parents, or siblings because I failed them?"

Karin uncrossed her legs and sat ramrod straight, her voice taking on that of a gently scolding mother as she spoke to Shepard's turned back. "Taren, stop blaming yourself. Their deaths weren't your fault in these cases any more than they were at Akuze, or Mindoir. You have less control over these reapers than you had over that nest of threshers, or those batarian slavers, and it is still not your fault. Turn that self blame into rage against the reapers. Use it, hone it into a weapon against them. You know better than this."

Shepard whipped around and fixed Karin with a glare that was half searing rage and half anguish, pointing a finger at her almost accusingly. "This isn't the same, Karin! Those enemies were quantifiable, knowable, understandable, despite their vile or base methods of reasoning. These reapers... There is no arguing with them, there is no understanding or reasoning with them."

Shepard growled out her frustration, every muscle in her body tense with anxiety. "How do you fight something like that? How do you fight something that thinks they're a god, Karin? Something that's proven that they can survive endlessly, control any mind, destroy everything, and live for nothing but the total and utter destruction of all life everywhere? If you can tell me that, then I might be able to find the strength stop blaming myself and start fighting them." She sunk down onto the couch in defeat, cradling her head in her hands.

Karin sighed. "Taren?" She waited for Shepard to raise her head and look at her.

"What?"

"You fight them by proving them wrong."

Shepard looked at Karin like she'd lost her mind. "What? How?"

"By using what you have to confound and subvert their efforts. You have the Prime, you have a loyal crew, you have the most advanced ship in the universe, aside from these reapers. Use it. All of it. Find a way to rip Saren out of their control, find a weakness in the reapers' armor and use this ship and your crew to drive a spear into it. Just because it is a machine that thinks it's invulnerable doesn't mean that is the absolute truth. Everything has a weakness. You just have to find out what it is and exploit it."

She caught Shepard's gaze with her own. "Be the tip of that spear, Taren. I know you have it in you."

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Garrus sat in the crew lounge, his mandibles twitching nervously as he wracked his brain for a way to word the email he was trying to write to his family. He knew that by now they would have gotten word of him quitting C-SEC. He also knew how badly his father would have taken that news, as well as how badly he would take the next bit of news that Garrus had no choice but to inform his family of.

Normally, the news of a turian taking a bondmate, especially one of a higher rank and station in life would be wonderful and welcome news to any turian family. But in this case, it was cause for some major concern, along with no small amount of confusion.

He'd already filled out all the legal forms, and had her sign them where needed. Tradition would have him send the forms, along with a formal letter requesting his family submit the forms, as well as asking for her acceptance into the clan.

However, knowing the intense racism that existed between turians and humans thanks to the fifteen year war that had raged between their species before he was born, his request for her acceptance into the clan was likely to be unanimously denied, outright. They would of course have to meet her and tell her so to her face, as tradition demanded, but he had no doubt of the outcome. Bringing a barefaced, mostly human bondmate home to meet the family was about the most shameful act he could commit, short of completely betraying the Hierarchy.

He sighed miserably as he tapped a talon on the desk he sat at. He huffed and began typing.

_To: Cadicus, Maela and Solana, Clan Vakarian_

_From: Garrus, Clan Vakarian_

_I hereby proclaim, in accordance with the traditions of the Hierarchy and the laws of our ancestors, that I have taken a bondmate, one Commander Taren Shepard, a Council Spectre in good standing, a legal citizen of the Hierarchy, as well as my commanding officer._

_Attached is a copy of the legal forms that have already been submitted to register her as my bondmate._

_I formally request a meeting to determine her eligibility to gain entry into the Vakarian clan, as our traditions demand._

_May you continue to serve the Hierarchy well._

He stared at the lines of text, mandibles clamped tightly to his face. Leave it to him to fall for the one female that his parents would despise. He sighed heavily as he sent the message to the queue to be sent out when they hit the next comm buoy.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Shepard nodded to Wrex as she entered engineering, walking over to the geth laying immobile on the floor and crossing her arms thoughtfully as she gazed down at it. She glanced up at Tali where she stood at her station and spoke in her direction. "Anything new down here?"

Tali turned sharply in surprise. "Oh, Shepard! I didn't hear you come in." She summoned her omni-tool with a flick of her wrist. "Nothing new to report, other than the frequency of the programming requests increasing. I hope that my father and his team will meet up with us soon to program it, otherwise I am not sure what will happen when the signal becomes constant."

Shepard nodded. "I wouldn't worry. He should be in range just before we hit the Citadel." She responded absently.

Tali quirked her head curiously as Shepard continued to stare down at the pile of geth parts. "Shepard, is something wrong?"

Shepard's head jerked up, looking slightly dazed, as if she'd forgotten where she was for a moment. "No, Tali. Just thinking."

Tali took a step closer. "May I ask about what? It seems to trouble you."

Shepard smiled. "I'm alright Tali. I'm just thinking... If I'm the tip of the spear, and the Normandy and its crew are the head... This thing, if it can be made to serve our purposes, may very well be the shaft that propels us; right into the weak point of the reapers' armor. I just hope I'm not placing all my bets on the wrong things."

Tali sighed for a moment, then smiled behind her mask. "Have a little faith, Shepard. We'll pull through."

Shepard looked askance at Tali. "Faith, huh?"

Tali nodded.

Shepard chewed her lip as she knelt down and laid her hand on the chest of the massive geth. "Then may the Spirits be with us all."


End file.
